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THE
LIFE, EXPERIENCE,
AND
GOSPEL LABORS
Rt. Rev. Richard Allen.
TO WHICH IS ANNEXED
THE RISE AND PROGRESS OF THE AFRICAN METHODIST
EPISCOPAL, CHURCH IN THE UNITED
STATES OF AMERICA.
CONTAINING A NARRATIVE OF THE YELLOW FEVER IN
THE YEAR OF OUR LORD 1 793.
WITH AN ADDRESS TO THE
PEOPLE OF COLOR IN THE UNITED STATES.
WRITTEN BY HIMSELF,
AND PUBLISHED BY HIS REQUEST.
Mark the perfect man, and behold the upright: for the end of that
man is peace.— Ps. xxxvii, 37
PHILADELPHIA:
F. FORD and M. A. RIPLY.
1880.
Digitized by the Internet Archive
in 2012 with funding from
Wellesley College Library
http://archive.org/details/lifeexperiencego1880alle
PREFACE.
A great part of this work having been written
many years after events actually took place, and as
my memory could not point out the exact time
of many occurrences, they are, however (as many as 1
can recollect), pointed out; some without day or date,
which, I presume, will be of no material consequence
so that they are confined to the truth.
Could I but recollect the half of my trials and suf-
ferings in this life, with the many meetings I have
held, and the various occurrences that have taken
place in my travelling to and fro, preaching the Gos-
pel of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, to Adam's
lost race, they would swell this little book far beyond
my inclination, and weary perhaps those into whose
hands it may chance to come; but as I have been
earnestly solicited by many of my friends to leave a
small detail of my life and proceedings, I have thought
proper, for the satisfaction of those who (after I am
dead and in the grave) may feel an inclination to
learn the commencement of my life, to leave behind
me this short account for their perusal.
Richard Alle:nt.
LIFE, EXPERIENCE, Etc.,
OF THE
Eight Rev. RICHARD ALLEN.
I was born in the year of our Lord 1760, on
February 14th, a slave to Benjamin Chew, of Phila-
delphia. My mother and father and four children of
us were sold into Delaware state, near Dover; and I
was a child and lived with him until I was upwards
of twenty years of age, during which time I was
awakened and brought to see myself, poor, wretched
and undone, and without the mercy of God must be
lost. Shortly after, I obtained mercy through the
blood of Christ, and was constrained to exhort my
old companions to seek the Lord. I went rejoicing
for several days and was happy in the Lord, in con-
versing with many old, experienced Christians. I was
brought uuder doubts, and was tempted to believe I
was deceived, and was constrained to seek the Lord
afresh. I went with my head bowed down for many
days. My sins were a heavy burden. I was tempted
to believe there was no mercy for me. I cried to the
Lord both night and day. One night I thought hell
would be my portion. I cried unto Him who delight-
eth to hear the prayers of a poor sinner, and all of a
sudden my dungeon shook, my chains flew off, and,
glory to God, I cried. My soul was filled. I cried,
enough for me— the Saviour died. Now my confi-
dence was strengthened that the Lord, for Christ's
sake, had heard my prayers and pardoned all my sins.
I was constrained to go from house to house, exhort-
ing my old companions, and telling to all around what
(5)
6 LIFE, EXPERIENCE, ETC., OF THE
a dear Saviour I had found. I joined the Methodist
society and met in class at Benjamin Wells's, in the
forest, Delaware state. John Gray was the class-
leader. I met in his class for several years.
My master was an unconverted man, and all the
family, but he was what the world called a good mas-
ter. He was more like a father to his slaves thau
anything else. He was a very tender, humane man.
My mother and father lived with him for many years.
He was brought into difficulty, not being able to pay
for us, and mother having several children after he
had bought us, he sold my mother and three child-
ren. My mother sought the Lord and found favor
with him, and became a very pious woman. There
were three children of us remained with our old mas-
ter. My oldest brother embraced religion and my
sister. Our neighbors, seeing that our master indulged
us with the privilege of attending meeting once in two
weeks, said that Stokeley's negroes would soon ruin
him ; and so my brother and myself held a council
together, that we would attend more faithfully to our
master's business, so that it should not be said that
religion made us worse servants; we would work night
and day to get our crops forward, so that they should
be disappointed. We frequently went to meeting on
every other Thursday; but if we were likely to be
backward with our crops we would refrain from going
to meeting. When our master found we were making
no provision to go to meeting, he would frequently
ask us if it was not our meeting day, and if we were
not going. We would frequently tell him; "No, sir,
we would rather stay at home and get our work done."
He would tell us: "Boys, I would rather you would
go to your meeting ; if I am not good myself, I like
to see you striving yourselves to be good..1' Our reply
would be: "Thank you, sir, but we would rather stay
and get our crops forward." So we always continued
to keep our crops more forward than our neighbors,
RIGHT REV. RICHARD ALLEN. 7
and we would attend public preaching once in two
weeks, and class meeting once a week. At length, our
master said he was convinced that religion made slaves
better and not worse, and often boasted of his slaves
for their honesty and industry. Some time after, I
asked him if I might ask the preachers to come and
preach at his house. He being old and infirm, my
master and mistress cheerfully agreed for me to ask
some of the Methodist preachers to come and preach
at his house. I asked him for a note. He replied, if
my word was not sufficient, he should send no note. I
accordingly asked the preacher. He seemed somewhat
backward at first, as my master did not send a written
request; but the class-leader (John Gray) observed
that my word was sufficient ; so he preached at my
old master's house on the next Wednesday. Preach-
ing continued for some months; at length, Freeborn
Garrison preached from these words, " Thou art
weighed in the balance, and art found wanting." In
pointing out and weighing the different characters,
and among the rest weighed the slaveholders, my mas-
ter believed himself to be one of that number, and
after that he could not be satisfied to hold slaves, be-
lieving it to be wrong. And after that he proposed to
me and my brother buying our times, to pay him 60/.
gold and silver, or $2000, Continental money, which
we complied with in the year 17 — .
We left our master's house, and I may truly say it
was like leaving our father's house ; for he was a kind,
affectionate and tender-hearted master, and told us to
make his house our home when we were out of a place
or sick. While living with him we had family prayer
in the kitchen, to which he frequently would come out
himself at time of prayer, and my mistress with him.
At length he invited us from the kitchen to the parlor
to hold family prayer, which we attended to. We had
our stated times to hold our prayer meetings and give
exhortations at in the neighborhood.
8 LIFE, EXPERIENCE, ETC., OF THE
I had it often impressed upon my mind that I should
one day enjoy my freedom ; for slavery is a bitter pill,
notwithstanding we had a good master. But when we
would think that our day's work was never done, we
often thought that after our master's death we were
liable to be sold to the highest bidder, as he was much
in debt; and thus my troubles were increased, and I
was often brought to weep between the porch and the
altar. But I have had reason to bless my dear Lord
that a door was opened unexpectedly for me to buy
my time and enjoy my liberty. When I left my mas-
ter's house I knew not what to do, uot being used to
hard work, what business I should follow to pay my
master and get my living. I went to cutting of cord
wood. The first day my hands were so blistered and
sore, that it was with difficulty I could open or shut
them. I kneeled down upon my knees and prayed
that the Lord would open some way for me to get my
living. Iu a few days, my hands recovered and be-
came accustomed to cutting of wood and other hard-
ships; so I soon became abie to cut my cord and a
half and two cords a day. After I was done cutting
I was employed in a brickyard by one Robert Regis-
ter, at $50 a mouth, Continental money. After I was
doue with the brickyard I went to days' work, but did
not forget to serve my dear Lord. I used ofttimes to
pray, sitting, standing or lying; and while my hands
were employed to earn my bread, my heart was de-
voted to my dear Redeemer. Sometimes I would
awake from mv sleep, preaching and praying. I was
after this employed iu driving ot* wagon in time of the
Continental war, iu drawing salt from Re ho bar, Sus-
sex county, in Delaware. I had my regular stops and
preaching places on the road. I enjoyed many happy
seasons iu meditation and prayer while in this employ-
ment.
After peace was proclaimed, I theu travelled exten-
sively, striving to preach the Gospel. My lot was
RIGHT REV. RICHARD ALLEN. 9
cast in Wilmington. Shortly after, I was taken sick
with the fall fever and then the pleurisy. September
the 3d 1783, I left my native place. After leaving
Wilmington, I went into New Jersey, and there trav-
elled and strove to preach the Gospel until the spring
of 1784. I then became acquainted with Benjamin
Abbott, that great and good apostle. He was one of
the greatest men that ever I was acquainted with. He
seldom preached but what there were souls added to
his labor. He was a man of as great faith as any
that ever I saw. The Lord was with him, and blessed
his labors abundantly. He was as a friend and father
to me. I was sorry when I had to leave West Jersey,
knowing I had to leave a father. I was employed in
cutting of wood for Captain Cruenkleton, although I
preached the Gospel at nights and on Sundays. My
dear Lord was with me, and blessed my labors — Glory
to God — and gave me souls for my hire. I then visited
East Jersey, and labored for my dear Lord, and
became acquainted with Joseph Budd, and made my
home with him, near the mills — a family, I trust,
who loved and served the Lord. I labored some time
there, but being much afflicted in body with the inflam-
matory rheumatism, was not so successful as in some
other places. I went from there to Jonathan Bunn's,
near Bennington, East New Jersey. There I labored
in that neighborhood lor some time. I found him
and his family kind and affectionate, and he and his
dear wife were a father and mother of Israel. In the
year 1784, I left East Jersey and labored in Pennsyl-
vania. I walked until my feet became so sore and
blistered the first day, that I scarcely could bear them
to the ground. I found the people very humane and
kind in Pennsylvania. I having but little money, I
stopped at Caesar Waters's, at Radnor township, twelve
miles from Philadelphia. I fouud him and his wife
very kind and affectionate tome. In the evening they
asked me if I would come and take tea with them ;
10 LIFE, EXPERIENCE, ETC., OF THE
but after sitting awhile, my feet became so sore and
painful that I could scarcely be able to put them to
the floor. I told them that I would accept of their
kind invitation, but my feet pained me so that I could
not come to the table. They brought the table to me.
Never was I more kindly received by strangers that I
had never before seen, than by them. She bathed my
feet with warm water and bran ; the next morning my
feet were better and free from pain. They asked me if
I would preach for them. I preached for them the next
evening. We had a glorious meeting. They invited
me to stay till Sabbath day, and preach for them. I
agreed to do so, and preached on Sabbath day to a
large congregation of different persuasions, and my
dear Lord was with me, and I believe there were many
souls cut to the heart, and were added to the ministry.
They insisted on me to stay longer with them. I
stayed and labored in Radnor several weeks. Many
souls were awakened and cried aloud to the Lord to
have mercy upon them. I was frequently called upon
by many inquiring what they should do to be saved.
I appointed them to prayer and supplication at the
throne of grace, and to make use of all manner of
prayer, and pointed them to the invitation of our Lord
and Saviour, Jesus Christ, who has said : " Come unto
me, all ye that are weary and heavy laden, and I will
give you rest." Glory be to God ! and now I know
he was a God at hand and not afar off. I preached
my farewell sermon, and left these dear people. It was
a time of visitation from above, many were the slain
of the Lord. Seldom did I ever experience such a
time of mourning and lamentation among a people.
There were but few colored people in the neighborhood
— the most of my congregation was white. Some said,
"this man must be a man of God ; I never heard such
preaching before." We spent a greater part of the
night in singing and prayer with the mourners. I
expected I should have had to walk, as I had done
RIGHT REV. RICnARD ALLEN. 11
before ; but Mr. Davis had a creature that he made a
present to me ; but I intended to pay him for his horse
if ever I got able. My dear Lord was kind and gra-
cious to me. Some years after I got into business and
thought myself able to pay for the horse. The horse
was too light and small for me to travel on far. I
traded it away with George Huftman for a blind horse
but larger. I found my friend Huftman very kind
and affectionate to me, and his family also. I preached
several times at Huft man's meeting-house to a large
and numerous congregation.
I proceeded on to Lancaster, Pennsylvania. I found
the people in general dead to religion and scarcely a
form of godliness. I went on to Little York, and put
up at George Tess's, a sadler, and I believed him to be a
man that loved and served the Lord. I had comfortable
meetings with the Germans. I left Little York and
proceeded on to the state of Maryland, and stopped at
Mr. Benjamin Grover's ; and I believed him to be a
man that loved and served the Lord. I had many
happy seasons with my dear friends. His wife was a
very pious woman ; but their dear children were
strangers to vital religion. I preached in the neigh-
borhood for some time, and travelled Hartford circuit
with Mr. Porters, who travelled that circuit. I found
him very useful to me. I also travelled with Jona-
than Forest and Leari Coal.
December 1784, General Conference sat in Balti-
more, the first General Conference ever held in
America. The English preachers just arrived from
Europe, Rev. Dr. Coke, Richard Watcoat and Thomas
Vasses. This was the beginning of the Episcopal
Church amongst the Methodists. Many of the min-
isters were set apart in holy orders at this confer-
ence, and were said to be entitled to the gown ; and
I have thought religion has been declining in the
church ever since. There was a pamphlet published
by some person? which stated, that when the Metho-
12 LIFE, EXPERIENCE, ETC., OF THE
dists were no people, then they were a people ; and
Dow they have become a people they were no people;
which had often serious weight upon my miud.
In 1785 the Rev. Richard Watcoat was appointed
on Baltimore circuit. He was, I believe, a man of
God. I found great strength in travelling with him —
a father in Israel. In his advice he was fatherly and
friendly. He was of a mild and serene disposition.
My lot was cast in Baltimore, in a small meeting-
house called Methodist Alley. I stopped at Richard
Mould's, and was sent to my lodgings, and lodged at
Mr. McCanuon's. I had some happy meetings in
Baltimore. I was introduced to Richard Russell, who
was very kind and affectionate to me, and attended
several meetings. Rev. Bishop Asbury sent for me
to meet him at Henry Gaff's. I did so. He told me
he wished me to travel with him. He told me that in
the slave countries, Carolina and other places, I must
not intermix with the slaves, and I would frequently
have to sleep in his carriage, and he would allow me
my victuals and clothes. I told him I would not
travel with him on these conditions. He asked me
my reason. I told him if I was taken sick, who was
to support me ? and that I thought people ought to
lay up something while they were able, to support
themselves in time of sickness or old age. He said
that was as much as he got, his victuals and clothes.
I told him he would be taken care of, let his afflic-
tions be as they were, or let him be taken sick where
he would, he would be taken care of; but I doubted
whether it would be the case with myself. He smiled,
and told me he would give me from then until he re-
tunnd from the eastward to make up my mind, which
woul I be about three months. But I made up my mind
that I would not accept of his proposals. Shortly after I
left Hartford circuit, ancT came to Pennsylvania, on
Lancaster circuit. I travelled several months on
Lancaster circuit with the Rev, Peter Morratte and
RIGHT REV. RIC&ARD ALLEK. 13
Irie Ellis. They were ver}^ kind and affectionate to
me in building me up ; for I had many trials to pass
through, and I received nothing from the Methodist
connection. My usual method was, when I would get
bare of clothes, to stop travelling and go to work, so
that no man could say I was chargeable to the con-
nection. My hands administered to my necessities.
The autumn of 1785 I returned again to Radnor. I
stopped at George Giger's, a man of God, and went to
work. His family were all kind and affectionate to
me. I killed seven beeves, and supplied the neigh-
bors with meat; got myself pretty well clad through
my own industry — thank God — and preached occa-
sionally. The elder in charge in Philadelphia fre-
quently sent for me to come to the city. February,
1786, I came to Philadelphia. Preaching was given
out for me at five o'clock in the morning at St.
George's church. I strove to preach as well as I
could, but it was a great cross to me ; but the Lord
was with me. We had a good time, and several souls
were awakened, and were earnestly seeking redemp-
tion in the blood of Christ. I thought I would stop
in Philadelphia a week or two. I preached at differ-
ent places in the city. My labor was much blessed.
I soon saw a large field open in seeking and instruct-
ing my African brethren, who had been a long forgot-
ten people and few of them attended public worship.
I preached in the commons, in Southwark, Northern
Liberties, and wherever I could find an opening. I
frequently preached twice a day, at 5 o'clock in the
morning and in the evening, and it was not uncom-
mon for me to preach from four to five times a day.
I established prayer meetings ; I raised a society in
1786 of forty-two members. I saw the necessity of
erecting a place of worship for the colored people. I
proposed it to the most respectable people of color in
this city ; but here I met with opposition. I had but
three colored brethren that united with me in erecting
14 iJFK, EXPERIENCE, ETC., OF THE
i
a place of worship — the Rev. Absalom Jones, William
White and Dorus Ginnings. These united with me
as soon as it became public and known by the elder
who was stationed in the city. The Rev. C B
opposed the plan, and, would not submit to any argu-
ment we could raise; but he was shortly removed
from the charge. The Rev. Mr. W took the
charge, and the Rev. L G . Mr. W was
much opposed to an African church, and used very
degrading and insulting language to us, to try and
prevent us from going on. We all belonged to St.
George's church — Rev. Absalom Jones, William White
and Dorus Ginnings. We felt ourselves much
cramped ; but my dear Lord was with us, and we be-
lieved, if it was his will, the work would go on, and
that we would be able to succeed in building the house
of the Lord. We established prayer meetings and
meetings of exhortation, and the Lord blessed our
endeavors, and many souls were awakened ; but the
elder soon forbid us holding anv such meetings ; but
we viewed the forlorn state of our colored brethren,
and that they were destitute of a place of worship.
They were considered as a nuisance.
A number of us usuallv attended St. George's
Church in Fourth street; and when the colored peo-
ple began to get numerous in attending the church,
they moved us from the seats we usually sat on, and
placed us around the wall, and on Sabbath morning
we went to church and the sexton stood at the door,
and told us to go in the gallery. He told us to go,
and we would see where to sit. We expected to take
the seats over the ones we formerly occupied below,
not knowing any better. We took those seats. Meet-
ing had begun, and they were nearly done singing, and
just as we got to the seats, the elder said, " Let us
pray." We had not been long upon our knees before
I heard considerable scuffling and low talking. I
raised my head up and saw one of the trustees, H
RIGHT REV. RICHARD ALLEN. 15
M , having hold of the Rev. Absalom Jones, pull-
ing him up off of his knees, and saying, " You must
get up — you must not kneel here." Mr. Jones re-
plied/* Wait until prayer is over." Mr. H M
said " No, you must get up now, or I will call for aid
and force you away." Mr. Jones said, " Wait until
prayer is over, and I will get up and trouble you no
more." With that he beckoned to one of the other
trustees, Mr. L— — S to come to his assistance.
He came, and went to William White to pull him up.
By this time prayer was over, and we all went out of the
church in a body, and they were no more plagued with
us in the church. This raised a great excitement and
inquiry among the citizens, in so much that I believe
they were ashamed of their conduct. But my dear
Lord was with us, and we were filled with fresh vigor
to get a house erected to worship God in. Seeing our
forlorn and distressed situation, many of the hearts of
our citizens were moved to urge us forward ; notwith-
standing we had subscribed largely towards finishing
St. George's church, in building the gallery and lay-
ing new floors, and just as the house was made com-
fortable, we were turned out from enjoying the com-
forts of worshipping therein. We then hired a store-
room, and held worship by ourselves. Here we were
pursued with threats of being disowned, and read pub-
licly out of meeting if we did continue worship in the
place we had hired ; but we believed the Lord would
be our friend. We got subscription papers out to
raise money to build the house of the Lord. By this
time we had waited on Dr. Rush and Mr. Robert Ral-
ston, and told them of our distressing situation. We
considered it a blessing that the Lord had put it into
our hearts to wait upon those gentlemen. They pitied
our situation, and subscribed largely towards the
church, and were very friendly towards us, and ad-
vised us how to go on. We appointed Mr. Ralston
our treasurer. Dr. Rush did much for us in public
16 LIFE, EXPERIENCE, ETC., OF THE
by his influence. I hope the name of Dr. Benjamin
Eush and Mr. Robert Ralston will never be forgotten
among us. They were the first two gentlemen who
espoused the cause of the oppressed, and aided us in
building the house of the Lord for the poor Africans
to worship in. Here was the beginning and rise of
the first African church in America. But the elder
of the Methodist church still pursued us. Mr. J
M called upon us and told us if we did not erase
our names from the subscription paper, and give up
the paper, we would be publicly turned out of meeting.
We asked him if we had violated any rules of disci-
pline by so doing. He replied, " I have the charge
given to me by the Conference, and unless you submit
I will read you publicly out of meeting." We told
him we were willing to abide by the discipline of the
Methodist Church, " And if you will show us where
we have violated any law of discipline of the Metho-
dist Church, we will submit; and if there is no
rule violated in the discipline we will proceed on."
He replied, " We will read you all out." We told him
if he turned us out contrary to rule of discipline, we
should seek further redress. We told him we were
dragged off of our knees in St. George's church, and
treated worse than heathens ; and we were deter-
mined to seek out for ourselves, the Lord being our
helper. He told us we were not Methodists, and left
us. Finding we would go on in raising money to
build the church, he called upon us again, and wished
to see us all together. We met him. He told us that
he wished us well, that he was a friend to us, and
used many arguments to convince us that we were
wrong in building a church. We told him we had no
place of worship ; and we did not mean to go to St.
George's church any more, as we were so scandalously
treated in the presence of all the congregation present;
"and if you deny us your name, you cannot seal up
the scriptures from us, and deny us a name in heaven.
EIGHT REV. RTCnARD ALLEN. 17
"We believe heaven is free for all who worship in spirit
and truth." And he said, " So you are determined to
goon." We told him k< Yes, God being our helper."
He then replied, " We will disown you all from the
Methodist connection." We believed if we put our
trust in the Lord, he would stand by us. This was a
trial that I never had to pass through before. 1 was
confident that the great head of the church would sup-
port us. My dear Lord was with us. We went out
with our subscription paper, and met with great suc-
cess. We had no reason to complain of the liberality
of the citizens. The first day the Rev. Absalom Jones
and myself went out we collected three hundred and
sixty dollars. This was the greatest day's collection
that we met with. We appointed a committee to look
out for a lot — the Rev. Absalom Jones, William Gray,
William Wilcher and myself. We pitched upon a
lot at the corner of Lombard and Sixth streets. They
authorized me to go and agree for it. I did accord-
ingly. The lot belonged to Mr. Mark Wilcox. We
entered into articles of agreement for the lot. After-
wards the committee found a lot in Fifth street, in a
more commodious part of the city, which we bought ;
and the first lot they threw upon my hands, and
wished me to give it up. I told them they had author-
ized me to agree for the lot, and they were all well
.satisfied with the agreement I had made, and I thought
it was hard that they should throw it upon my hands.
I told them I would sooner keep it myself than to for-
feit the agreement I had made. And so I did.
We bore much persecution from many of the Metho-
dist connection ; but we have reason to be thankful to
Almighty God. who was our deliverer. The day was
appointed to go and dig the cellar. I arose early in
the morning and addressed the throne of grace, pray-
ing that the Lord would bless our endeavors. Having
by this time two or three teams of my own — as I was
the first proposer of the African church, I put the first
2
18 LIFE, EXPERIENCE, ETC., OF THE
spade in the ground to dig a cellar for the same. This
was the firs' African church or meeting-house that
was erected in the United Stakes of America. We in-
tended it for the African preaching-house or church ;
but finding that the elder stationed in this city was
such an opposer to our proceedings of erecting a place
of worship, though the principal part of the directors
of this church belonged to the Methodist connection,
the elder stationed here would neither preach for us,
nor have anything to do with us. We then held an
election, to know what religious denomination we
should unite with. At the election it was determined —
there were two in favor of the Methodist, the Rev.
Absalom Jones and myself, and a large majority in
favor of the Church of England. The majority car-
ried. Notwithstanding we had been so violently per-
secuted by the elder, we were in favoi of being at-
tached to the Methodist connection ; foi I was confi-
dent that there was no religious sect or denomination
would suit the capacity of the colored people as well
as the Methodist ; for the plain and simple gospel
suits best for any people ; for the unlearned can under-
stand, and the learned are sure to understand ; and
the reason that the Methodist is so successful in the
awakening and conversion of the colored people, the
plain doctrine and having a good discipline. But in
many cases the preachers would act to please their
own fancy, without discipline, till some of them became
such tyrants, and more especially to the colored peo-
ple. They would turn them out of society, giving
them no trial, for the smallest offence, perhaps only
hearsay. They would frequently, in meeting the class,
impeach some of the members of whom they had
heard an ill report, and turn them out, saying, " I have
heard thus and thus of you, and you are no moie a
member of society " — without witnesses on either side.
This has been frequently done, notwithstanding in the
first rise and progress in Delaware state, and else-
RIGHT REV. RICHARD ALLEN. 19
where, the colored people were their greatest support ;
for there were but few of us free ; but the slaves would
toil iu their little patches many a night uutil mid-
night to raise their little truck and sell to get some-
thing to support them more than what their masters
gave them, but we used often to divide our little sup-
port among the white preachers of the Gospel. This
was once a quarter. It was in the time of the old
revolutionary war between Great Britain and the
United States. The Methodists were the first people
that brought glad tidings to the colored people. I feel
thankful that ever I heard a Methodist preach. We
are beholden to the Methodists, under God, for the
light of the Gospel we enjoy ; for all other denomina-
tions preached so high-flown that we were not able to
comprehend their doctrine. Sure am I that reading
sermons will never prove so beneficial to the colored
people as spiritual or extempore preaching. I am
well convinced that the Methodist has proved bene-
ficial to thousands and ten times thousands. It is to
be awfully feared that the simplicity of the Gospel
that was among them fifty years ago, and that they
conform more to the world and the fashions thereof,
they would fare very little better than the people of
the world. The discipline is altered considerably
from what it was. We would ask for the good old
way, and desire to walk therein.
In 1793 a committee was appointed from the Afri-
can Church to solicit me to be their minister, for there
was no colored preacher in Philadelphia but myself.
I told them I could not accept of their offer, as I was
a Methodist. I was indebted to the Methodists, under
God, for what little religion I had ; being convinced
that they were the people of God, I informed them
that I could not be anything else but a Methodist, as
I was born and awakened under them, and I could go
no further with them, for I was a Methodist, and
would leave you in peace and love. I would do noth-
20 LIFE, EXPERIENCE, ETC., OF THE
ing to retard them in building: a church as it was an
extensive building, neither would I go out with a sub-
scription paper until they were done going out with
their subscription. I bought an old frame that had
been formerly occupied as a blacksmith shop, from
Mr. Sims, and hauled it on the lot in Sixth near Lom-
bard street, that had formerly been taken for the
Church of England. I employed carpenters to repair
the old frame, and fit it for a place of worship. In
July 1794, Bishop Asbury being in town I solicited
him to open the church* for us which he accepted.
The Rev. John Dickins sung and prayed, and Bishop
Asbury preached. The house was called Bethel,
agreeable to the prayer that was made. Mr. Dickins
prayed that it might be a bethelf to the gathering in
of thousauds of souls. My dear Lord was with us, so
that there was many hearty "amen's" echoed through
the house. This house of worship has been favored
with the awakening of many souls, and I trust they
are in the Kingdom, both white and colored. Our
warfare and troubles now began afresh. Mr. C. pro-
posed that we should make over the church to the
Conference. This we objected to ; he asserted that
we could not be Methodists unless we did ; we told him
he might deny us their name, but they could not deny
us a seat in Heaven. Finding that he could not pre-
vail with us so to do, he observed that we had better
be incorporated, then we could get any legacies that
were left for us, if not, we could not. We agreed to
be incorporated. He offered to draw the incorpora-
tion himself, that it would save us the trouble of pay-
ing for to get it drawn. We cheerfully submitted to
his proposed plan. He drew the incorporation, but
incorporated our church under the Conference, our
property was then all consigned to the Conference for
* This church will at present accommodate between 3000 and
4000 persons.
f See Gen. Chap. 23,
RIGHT REV. RICHARD ALLEjST. 21
the present bishops, elders, ministers, &c., that be-
longed to the white Conference, and our property was
gone. Being ignorant of incorporations we cheerfully
agreed thereto. We labored about ten years under
this incorporation, until J S was appointed
to take the charge in Philadelphia ; he soon waked us
up by demanding the keys and books of the church,
and forbid us holding any meetings except by orders
from him ; these propositions we told him we could not
agree to. He observed he was elder, appointed to the
charge, and unless we submitted to him, he would read
us all out of meeting. We told him the house was
ours, we had bought it, and paid for it. He said he
would let us know it was not ours, it belonged to the
Conference; we took counsel on it; counsel informed
us we had been taken in ; according to the incorpora-
tion it belonged to the white connection. We asked
him if it couldn't be altered ; he told us if two-thirds
of the society agreed to have it altered, it could be
altered. He gave me a transcript to lay before them;
I called the society together and laid it before them.
My dear Lord was with us. It was unanimously
agreed to, by both male and female. We had another
incorporation drawn that took the church from Con-
ference, and got it passed, before the elder knew any-
thing about it. This raised a considerable rumpus, for
the elder contended that it would not be good unless
he had signed it. The elder, with the trustees of St.
George's, called us together, and said we must pay six
hundred dollars a year for their services, or they could
not serve us. We told them we were not able so to
do. The trustees of St. George's insisted that we
should or should not be supplied by their preachers.
At last they made a move that, they would take four
hundred ; we told them that our house was consider-
ably in debt, aud we poor people, and we could not
agree to pay four hundred, but we agreed to give them
two hundred. It was moved by one of the trustees of
22 LIFE, EXPERIENCE, ETC., OF THE
St. George's that the money should be paid into their
treasury ; we refused paying it into their treasury, but
we would pay it to the preacher that served ; they
made a move that the preacher should not receive the
money from us. The Bethel trustees made a move
that their funds should be shut and they would pay
none ; this caused a considerable contention. At
length they withdrew their motion. The elder sup-
plied us preaching five times in a year for two hun-
dred dollars. Finding that they supplied us so seldom,
the trustees of Bethel church passed a resolution that
they would pay but one hundred dollars a year, as the
elder only preached five times in a year for us ; they
called for the money, we paid him twenty-five dollars
a quarter, but he being dissatisfied, returned the
money back again, and would not have it unless we
paid him fifty dollars. The trustees concluded it was
enough for five sermons, and said they would pay no
more ; the elder of St. George's was determined to
preach for us no more, unless we gave him two hun-
dred dollars, and we were left alone for upwards of
one year.
Mr. S R being appointed to the charge of
Philadelphia, declared unless we should repeal the Sup-
plement, neither he nor any white preacher, travelling
or local, should preach any more for us ; so we were
left to ourselves. At length the preachers and stew-
ards belonging to the Academy, proposed serving us
on the same terms that we had offered to the St.
George's preachers, and they preached for us better
than a twelve month, and then demanded S150 per
year ; this not being complied with, they declined
preaching for us, and we were once more }eft to our-
selves, as an edict was passed by the elder, that if any
local preacher should serve us, he should be expelled
from the connexion. John Emory, then elder of the
Academy, published a circular letter, in which we were
disowned by the Methodists. A house was also hired
RIGHT REV. RICHARD ALLEN. 23
and fitted up for worship, not far from Bethel, and an
invitation given to all who desired to be Methodists
to resort thither. But being disappointed in this plan,
Eobert R. Roberts, the resident elder, came to Bethel,
insisted on preaching to us and taking the spiritual
charge of the congregation, for we were Methodists.
He was told he should come on some terms with the
trustees ; his answer was, that " He did not come to
consult with Richard Allen or other trustees, but to
inform the congregation, that on next Sunday after-
noon, he would come and take the spiritual charge."
We told him he could not preach for us under exist-
ing circumstances. However, at the appointed time
he came, but having taken previous advice wre had our
preacher in the pulpit when he came, and the house
was so fixed that he could not get but more than half
way to the pulpit. Finding himself disappointed he
appealed to those who came with him as witnesses,
that " That man (meaning the preacher), had taken
his appointment." Several respectable white citizens,
who knew the colored people had been ill-used, wTere
present, and told us not to fear, for they would see us
righted, and not suffer Roberts to preach in a forcible
manner, after which Roberts went away.
The next elder stationed in Philadelphia was Rob-
ert Birch, who, following the example of his prede-
cessor, came and published a meeting for himself. But
the method just mentioned was adopted and he had to
go away disappointed. In consequence of this, he ap-
plied to the Supreme Court for a writ of mandamus,
to know why the pulpit was denied him. Being elder,
this brought on a lawsuit, which ended in our favor.
Thus by the Providence of God we were delivered from
a long, distressing and expensive suit, which could
not be resumed, being determined by the Supreme
Court. For this mercy we desire to be unfeignedly
thankful.
About this time, our colored frieuds in Baltimore
24 LIFE, EXPERIENCE, ETC., OF THE
were treated in a similar manner by the white preach-
ers and trustees, and many of them driven away who
were disposed to seek a place of worship, rather than
go to law.
Many of the colored people in other places were in
a situation nearly like those of Philadelphia and Bal-
timore, which induced us, in April 1816, to call a gen-
eral meeting, by way of Conference. Delegates from
Baltimore and other places which met those of Phila-
delphia, and taking into consideration their grievances,
and in order to secure the privileges, promote union
and harmony among themselves, it was resolved :
" That the people of Philadelphia, Baltimore, &c, &c,
should become one body, under the name of the Af-
rican Methodist Episcopal Church." We deemed it
expedient to have a form of discipline, whereby we
may guide our people in the fear of God, in the unity
of the Spirit, and in the bonds of peace, and preserve
us from that spiritual despotism which we have so
recently experienced — remembering that we are not
to lord it over God's heritage, as greedy dogs that can
never ha-ve enough. But with long suffering and
bowels of compassion, to bear each other's burdens,
and so fulfil the Law of Christ, praying that our
mutual striving together for the promulgation of the
Gospel may be crowned with abundant success.
The God of Bethel heard her cries,
He let his power be seen ;
He stopp'd the proud oppressor's frown,
And proved himself a King.
Thou sav'd them in the trying hour,
Ministers and councils joined,
And all stood ready to retain
That helpless church of Thine.
Bethel surrounded by her foes,
But not yet in despair,
Christ heard her supplicating cries ;
The God of Bethel heard.
RIGHT REV. RICHARD ALLEN. 25
AFRICAN SUPPLEMENT.
Articles improving, amending and altering the arti-
cles of association of the " African Methodist Episco-
pal Church, commonly called and known by the name
of Bethel Church," of the city of Philadelphia, by
and with consent of two-thirds of the male members
of said church :
Art. 1. It is hereby provided and declared : That
so much of the fourth article of association, as requires
the consent of the elder for the time being, to grant
alienations or conveyances of the estate, real or per-
sonal, in this corporation, vested or to be vested, be
altered and repealed, provided that no grant, aliena-
tion, conveyance, mortgage or pledge of the estate,
real or personal, in the said corporation, vested or to
be vested, shall be made by the said trustees or their
successors, unless with consent of two-thirds of the
regular male members of the church, of at least
twenty-one years of age and one year's standing.
Art. 2. Whereas, some persons, members of Bethel
church, having been duly suspended, upon complaint
made of their having walked or having been expelled
from the said church, have afterwards been received
as members of the Methodist Episcopal Church else-
where, and notwithstanding their suspension or expul-
sion as aforesaid, have claimed to be admitted into
the private and close meetings of the said " Bethel
church," by reason of notes of admission obtained in
some other church, of which they have been received
as members: it is hereby declared, that no such per-
son or persons whatever, while so suspended or have
been so expelled, nor any other person or persons, not
being members of the said Methodist Episcopal Church,
26 LIFE, EXPERIENCE, ETC., OF THE
shall he admitted to commune, or to the love feasts,
or any other close or private meeting whatever, held
iu said Bethel church or any other church or churches
which may hereafter become the property of this cor-
poration, unless with the consent of two-thirds of the
trustees of said church for the time being.
Art. 3. It is hereby further provided and declared,
that a majority of the trustees and official members,
convened agreeably to notice, given at least one Sab-
bath day previously to such meeting, shall and may
nominate and appoint one or more persons of the
African race, to exhort and preach in Bethel church,
and any other church or churches, which may hereafter
become the property of this corporation, for such time
and on such conditions as may be agreed on — pro-
vided that the exhorters and preachers so nominated
aud appointed shall have been regularly licensed by
the Quarterly Meeting Conference of the Bethel
church, or some one of the Methodist Episcopal
churches elsewhere, and provided also, that the Elder
of the Methodist Episcopal Church for the time being,
may as heretofore claim, and shall have and possess,
a right to preach once on every Sunday, and once
during the course of the week, and no more, in any
or all the houses set apart, by the aforesaid trustees or
their successors of the said Bethel church.
Art. 4. It is hereby provided and declared, that
the trustees of Bethel church, and their successors, or
a majority of them, may open the said church or any
church or churches, that may hereafter become the
property of this corporation, and may appoint and
hold a religious meeting or meetings there, provided
that no person or persons be admitted at such meet-
ing or meetings to exhort or preach, unless they shall
have been duly licensed thereto, conformably to the
rules and discipline of the M. E. Church, or have
leave of a majority of said trustees.
Art. 5. It is hereby further ordered and declared,
UlGltT l\KV. RICHARD ALLfcS*. 27
that the elder of the Methodist Episcopal Church for
the time being in Philadelphia, shall in no case re-
ceive any person as a member of Bethel church, nor
shall any person be received as a member thereof, or
being a member thereof, be suspended or expelled
therefrom, unless by a majority of the trustees of said
church, or their successors ; and that in case said
elder shall refuse or neglect to preach and exhort in
the said church or churches, which shall hereafter be-
come the property of this corporation, once every Sun-
day, and once during the course of the week, as is
herein before provided, or shall neglect or refuse to
attend therein, to administer the ordinances of Baptism
and the Lord's Supper, in that case a majority of the
trustees or their successors, may appoint any other
person, duly qualified, according to the rules and dis-
cipline of the Methodist Episcopal Church, to officiate
in the place instead of the elder so refusing or neglect-
ing ; and if the said elder shall neglect or refuse to
attend any quarterly conference, love feast, or meet-
ing for the trial of a disorderly member of said church,
or any other meeting, public or private, duly appointed
by a majority of the trustees or their successors, it
shall be lawful for them nevertheless, with the con-
currence of one or more of their colored brethren, duly
licensed to exhort or preach by the quarterly meeting
conference of Bethel church, or with the concurrence
of any other person or persons, so licensed by the
Methodist Episcopal Church, to hold such quarterly
meeting conference or love feast, and to proceed in the
trial of such disorderly members, and to suspend or
expel him or her, as may be right and just, to license
qualified persons to exhort and preach ; and, finally,
to transact all business, and to proceed in their affairs,
temporal and spiritual, with the same effect, to all in-
tents and purposes, as if the said elder was personally
present and consented thereto.
Art. 6. It is hereby further agreed and declared,
28 LIFE, EXPERIENCE, ETC., OF THE
that the elder of the Methodist Episcopal Church, for
the time being, of the city of Philadelphia, shall in no
case nominate any person to preach in Bethel church,
or in any church or churches, which shall hereafter
become the property of said corporation ; unless with
the concurrence of a majority of the trustees of the
said church, or their successors ; and that any nomi-
nation made without the concurrence of said trustees,
or a majority of them, shall be void.
Art. 7. And it is hereby agreed, provided and de-
clared, that any article or provision in the " Articles
of Association," of the trustees and members of the
African Methodist Episcopal Church, called Bethel
church, heretofore made and agreed on, inconsistent
with, or altered by these present articles, shall be
deemed and taken to be repealed and absolutely void,
so far as they may be inconsistent or altered.
The subscribing trustees and members of the Afri-
can Methodist Episcopal Church, called Bethel church,
heretofore incorporated under the style and title of
the Africau Methodist Episcopal Church of the city
of Philadelphia, in the Commonwealth of Pennsyl-
vania, which the said corporation as aforesaid formed
and established, having herein specified the improve-
ments, amendments and alterations which are desired,
respectfully exhibit and present the same to Joseph
B. McKean, Esq., Attorney General of the Common-
wealth of Pennsylvania, and to the honorable judges
of the Supreme Court of the said Commonwealth ; in
pursuance of an Act of Assembly, entitled, "An act
to coiil'er on certain associations of the citizens of this
commonwealth the powers and immunities of corpora-
tions, or bodies politic in law." Passed the 6th day
of April, 1791.
RIGHT REV. RICHARD ALLEN. 29
ACTS OF FAITH.
I believe, O God, that Thou art an eternal, incom-
prehensible spirit, infinite in all perfections; who didst
make all things out of nothing, and dost govern them
all by thy wise providence.
Let me always adore Thee with profound humility,
as my Sovereign Lord ; and help me to love and praise
Thee with godlike affections and suitable devotion.
I believe that in the unity of the Godhead, there
is a trinity of persons; that Thou art perfectly one
and perfectly three ; one essence and three persons.
I believe, O blessed Jesus, that Thou art of one sub-
stance with the Father, the very and eternal God ;
that Thou didst take upon Thee our frail nature;
that Thou didst truly suffer, and wert crucified, dead
and buried, to reconcile us to thy Father and to be a
sacrifice for sin.
I believe, that according to the types and prophe-
cies, which went before, of Thee, and according to
Thy own infallible prediction, Thou didst by Thy own
power rise from the dead the third day, that Thou
didst ascend into Heaven, that there Thou sittest on
Thy throne of glory adored by angels and interceding
for sinners.
I believe, that Thou hast instituted and ordained
holy mysteries, as pledges of Thy love, and for a con-
tinual commemoration of Thy death ; that Thou hast
not only given Thyself to die for me, but to be my
spiritual food and sustenance in that holy sacrament
to my great and endless comfort. O, may I frequently
approach Thy altar with humility and devotion, and
work in me all those holy and heavenly affections,
which become the remembrance of a crucified Sa-
viour.
I believe, O Lord, that Thou hast not abandoned
30 LIFE, EXPERIENCE, ETC., OF THE
me to the dim light of my own reason to conduct me
to happiness, but that Thou hast revealed in the Holy
Scriptures whatever is necessary for me to believe and
practice, in order to my eternal salvation.
0, how noble and excellent are the precepts; how
sublime and enlightening the truth ; how persuasive
and strong the motives ; how powerful the assistance
of Thy holy religion, in which Thou hast instructed
me ; my delight shall be in Thy statutes, and I will
not forget Thy word.
I believe it is my greatest honor and happiness to
be thy disciple ; how miserable and blind are those
that live without God in the world, who despise the
light of Thy holy faith. Make me to part with all
the enjoyments of life ; nay, even life itself, rather than
forfeit this jewel of great price. Blessed are the suf-
ferings which are endured, happy is the death which
is undergone for heavenly and immortal truth ! I be-
lieve that Thou hast prepared for those that love Thee,
everlasting mansions of glory ; if I believe Thee, O,
eternal happiness. Why does anything appear diffi-
cult that leads to Thee? Why should I not wil-
lingly resist unto blood to obtain Thee ? Why do
the vain and empty employments of life take such
vast hold of us? 0, perishing time! Why dost
Thou thus bewitch and deceive me ? O, blessed eter-
nity ! When shalt Thou be my portion for ever ?
ACTS OF HOPE,
O, my God ! in all my dangers, temporal and spir-
itual, I will hope in thee who art Almighty power,
and therefore able to relieve me ; who art infinite
goodness, and therefore ready and willing to assist me.
RIGHT REV. RICHARD ALLKN. 31
O, precious blood of my dear Redeemer! O, gaping
wounds of my crucified Saviour ! Who can contem-
plate the sufferings of God incarnate, and not raise his
hope, and not put his trust in Him ? What, though
my body be crumbled into dust, and that dust blown
over the face of the earth, yet I undoubtedly know
my Redeemer lives, and shall raise me up at the last
day ; whether I am comforted or left desolate ; whether
I enjoy peace or am afflicted with temptations ; whether
I am healthful or sickly, succored or abandoned by
the good things of this life, I will always hope in thee,
O, my chiefest, infinite good.
Although the fig-tree shall not blossom, neither
shall fruit be in the vines ; although the labor of the
olive shall fail, and the fields yield no meat ; al-
though the flock shall be cut off from the fold, and
there shall be no herd in the stalls, yet I will rejoice
in the Lord, I will joy in the God of my salvation.
What, though I mourn and am afflicted here, and
sigh under the miseries of this world for a time, I am
sure that my tears shall one clay be turned into joy,
and that joy none shall take from me. Whoever
hopes for the great things in this world, takes pains to
attain them ; how can my hopes of everlasting life be
well grounded, if I do not strive and labor for that
eternal inheritance? I will never refuse the meanest
labors, w'hile I look to receive such glorious wages; I
will never repine at any temporal loss, while I expect
to gain such eternal rewards. Blessed hope ! be thou
my chief delight in life, aud then I shall be steadfast
and immovable, always abounding in the work of the
Lord ; be thou my comfort and support at the hour of
death, and then I shall contentedly leave this world,
as a captive that is released from his imprisonment.
32 IJFE, EXFERIE>'CE, ETC., OF THE
ACTS OF LOVE.
O, infinite nmiableness ! When shall I love thee
without bounds? without coldness or interruption,
which, alas ! so often seize me here below? L-t me
never suffer any creature to be Thy rival, or to share
my heart with Thee; let rae have no other God, no
other love, but only Thee.
Whoever loves, desires to please the beloved object;
and according to the degree of love is the greatness of
desire ; make me, 0 God ! diligent and earnest in
pleasing Thee ; let me cheerfully discharge the most
painful and costly duties ; and forsake friends, riches,
ease ami life itself, rather than disobey Thee.
Whoever loves, desires the welfare and happiness of
the beloved object ; but Thou, 0 dear Jesus, cau'st re-
ceive no addition from my imperfect services ; what
shall I do to express ray affection towards Thee? I
will relieve the necessities of my poor brethren, who
are members of Thy body ; for he that loveth not his
brother whom he has seen, how can he love God whom
he hath not seen ?
O, crucified Jesus ! in whom I live, and without
whom I die ; mortify in me all sensual desires ; in-
flame my heart with Thy holy love, that I may no
longer esteem the vanities of this world, but place my
affections entirely on Thee.
Let my last breath, when my soul shall leave my
body, breathe forth love to Thee, my God ; I entered
into life without acknowledging Thee, let me there-
fore finish it in loving Thee ; O let the last act of life
be love, remembering that God is love.
RIGHT EEV. RICHARD ALLEN. 33
A NARRATIVE
Of the proceedings of the Colored People dur-
ing THE AWFUL CALAMITY IN PHILADELPHIA, IN
THE YEAR 1793; AND A REFUTATION OF SOME
CENSURES THROWN UPON THEM IN SOME PUBLICA-
TIONS.
By Absalom Jones and Richard Allen.
In consequence of a partial representation of the
conduct of the people, who were employed to nurse
the sick in the calamitous state of the city of Phila-
delphia, we were solicited by a number of those who
felt themselves injured thereby, and by the advice of
several respectable citizens, to step forward and de-
clare facts as they really were ; and seeing that from
our situation, on account of the charge we took upon
us, we had it more fully and generally in our power
to know and observe the conduct and behavior of those
that were so employed.
Early in September, a solicitation appeared in the
public papers, to the people of color to come forward
and assist the distressed, perishing and neglected sick ;
with a kind of assurance, that people of our color
were not liable to take the infection ; upon which we
and a few others met and consulted how to act on so
truly alarming and melancholy an occasion. After
some conversation, we found a freedom to go forth,
confiding in Him who can preserve in the midst of a
burning, fiery furnace. Sensible that it was our duty
to do all the good we could to our suffering fellow
mortals, we set out to see where we could be useful.
The first we visited was a man in Elmsley's Alley,
who was dying, and his wife lay dead at the time in
the house. There were none to assist but two poor,
helpless children. We administered what relief. we
could, and applied to the overseers of the poor to have
3
34 LIFE, EXPERIENCE, ETC., OF THE
the woman buried. We visited upwards of twenty
families that day — they were scenes of woe indeed !
The Lord was pleased to strengthen us and remove all
fear from us, and disposed our hearts to be as useful
as possible. In order the better to regulate our con-
duct, we called on the mayor next day, to consult with
him how to proceed so as to be most useful. The first
object he recommended was a strict attention to the
sick and the procuring of nurses. This was attended
to by Absalom Jones and William Gray ; and in order
that the distressed might know where to apply, the
mayor advertised the public that upon application to
them they would be supplied. Soon after, the mortal-
ity increasing, the difficulty of getting a corpse taken
away was such, that few were willing to do it when
offered great rewards. The colored people were looked
to. We then offered our services in the public papers,
by advertising that we would remove the dead and
procure nurses. Our services were the production of
real sensibility ; we sought not fee nor reward, until
the increase of the disorder rendered our labor so
arduous, that we were not adequate to the service we
had assumed. The mortality increasing rapidly,
obliged us to call in the assistance of five hired men
in the awful charge of interring the dead. They, with
great reluctance, were prevailed upon to join us. It
was very uncommon, at this time, to find any one that
would go near, much more handle a sick or dead person.
When the sickness became general, and several of
the physicians died, and most of the survivors were
exhausted by sickness or fatigue, that good man, Dr.
Kush, called us more immediately to attend upon the
sick, knowing that we could both bleed. He told us
that we could increase our utility by attending to his
instructions, and according directed us where to pro-
cure medicine duly prepared, with proper directions
how to administer them, and at what stages of the dis-
order to bleed ; and when we found ourselves incapa-
RIGHT REV. RICHARD ALLEN. 35
ble of judging what was proper to be done, to apply-
to him and he would, if able, attend them himself or
send Edward Fisher, his pupil, which he often did ;
and Mr. Fisher manifested his humanity by an affec-
tionate attention for their relief. This has been no
small satisfaction to us ; for we think that when a phy-
sician was not attainable, we have been the instruments
in the hands of God, for saving the lives of some hun-
dreds of our suffering fellow mortals.
We feel ourselves sensibly aggrieved by the censo-
rious, epithets of many who did not render the least
assistance in the time of necessity, yet are liberal of
their censure of us, for the prices paid for our ser-
vices, when no one knew how to make a proposal to
any one they wanted to assist them. At first we made
no charge but left it to those we served in removing
their dead to give what they thought fit. We set
no price until the reward was fixed by those we had
served. After paying the people we had to assist us,
our compensation was much less than many will be-
lieve.
We do assure the public that all the money we re-
ceived for burying and for coffins, which we ourselves
purchased and procured, has not defrayed the expense
of wages which we had to pay those whom we em-
ployed to assist us. The following statement is accu-
rately made :
Cash received — The whole amount of cash
received for burying the dead, and for
burying beds, is £233 10 4
Cash paid for coffins, for which we re-
ceived nothing 33 00 0
For the hire of five men, three of them 70
days each, and the other two 63 days
each, at 22s. 6d. per day 378 00 0
£411 00 0
36 LIFE, EXPERIENCE, ETC., OF THE
Debts due us, for which we expect but
little £110 00 0
From this statement, for the truth of
which we solemnly vouch, it is evident,
and we seusibly feel the operation of
the fact, that we are out of pocket £177 9 8
Besides, the cost of hearses, the maintenance of our
families for seventy days (being the period of our
labors , and the support of the five hired men, during
the respective times of their being employed ; which
expenses, together with sundry gifts we occasionally
made to poor families, which might reasonably and
properly be introduced, to show our actual situation
with regard to profit ; but it is enough to exhibit to
the public, from the above specified items, of cash paid
and cash received, without taking into view the other
expenses, that by the employment we were engaged in
we lost 177/. 9-5. Sd. But if the other expenses, which
we have actually paid, are added to that sum, how
much then may we not say we have suffered ? We
leave the public to judge.
It may possibly appear strange to some who know
how constantly we were employed, and that we should
have received no more cash than 233/. 10s. 4c/. But
we repeat our assurance that this is the fact; and we
add another, which will serve the better to explain it :
we have buried several hundred of poor persons and
strangers, for which service we have never received
nor never asked any compensation.
We feel ourselves hurt most by a partial, censorious
paragraph in Mr. Carey's second edition of his account
of the sickness, &c, in Philadelphia, pages 76 and 77,
where he asperses the blacks alone, for having taken
the advantage of the distressed situation of the people.
That some extravagant prices were paid we admit ;
but how came they to be demanded ? The reason is
plain. It was with difficulty persons could be had to
supply the wants of the sick as nurses ; applications
RIGHT REV. RICHARD ALLEN. 37
became more and more numerous ; the consequence
was, when we procured them at six dollars per week,
and called upon them to go where they were wanted,
we found they were gone elsewhere. Here was a dis-
appointment. Upon inquiring the cause, we found
they had been allured away by others, who offered
greater wages, until they got from two to four dollars
per day. We had no restraint upon the people. It
was natural for people in low circumstances to accept
a voluntary, bounteous reward ; especially under the
loathsomeness of many of the sick, when nature shud-
dered at the thought of the infection, and the task
assigned was aggravated by lunacy and being left
much alone with them. Had Mr. Carey been solicited
to such an undertaking, for hire, query — what would
he have demanded ? But Mr. Carey, although chosen
a member of that band of worthies who have so emi-
nently distinguished themselves by their labors for the
relief of the sick and helpless ; yet, quickly after his
election, left them to struggle with their arduous and
hazardous task, by leaving the city. 'Tis true Mr.
Carey was no hireling and had a right to flee, and,
upon his return, to plead the cause of those who fled ;
yet, we think, he was wrong in giving so partial and
injurious an account of the colored nurses ; if they
have taken advantage of the public distress, is it any
more than he hath done of its desire for information ?
We believe he has made more money by the sale of his
" Scraps " than a dozen of the greatest extortioners
among the colored nurses. The great prices paid did
not escape the observation of that worthy and vigilant
magistrate, Matthew Clarkson, mayor of the city, and
president of the committee. He sent for us, and re-
quested we would use our influence to lessen the wages
of the nurses. But on informing him of the cause, i. e.,
that of the people over-biddiug one another, it was
concluded unnecessary to attempt anything on that
head ; therefore it was left to the people concerned.
oS 1.1FE, lOXTKRIRXCE, ETC., OF the
That th -re were poms few colored people guilty of
plundering the distressed we acknowledge; but in
that they only sire pointed out and made mention of,
we esteem partial and injurious. We know as many
whites who were guilty of it ; but this is looked over,
while the blacks are held up to censure. Is it a
greater crime for a black to pilfei than for a white to
privateer ?
We wish not to offend ; but when an unprovoked
attempt is made to make us blacker than we are, it
becomes less necessary to be over-cautious on that
account ; therefore we shall take the liberty to tell of
the conduct of some of the whites.
We know that six pouuds was demanded by and
paid to a white woman, for putting a corpse into a
coffin ; and forty dollars was demanded and paid to
four white men, for bringing it down the stairs.
Mr. and Mrs. Taylor both died in one night. A
white woman had the care of them. After they were
dead she called on Jacob Servoss, Esq., for her pay,
demanding six pounds for laying them out. Upon
seeing a bundle with her, he suspected she had pil-
fered. On searching her, Mr. Taylor's buckles were
found in her pocket, with other things.
An elderly lady, Mrs. Malony, was given into the
care of a white woman. She died. We were called
to remove the corpse. When we came, the woman
was lying so drunk that she did not know what we
were doing ; but we knew that she had one of Mrs.
Maloney's rings on her finger.
It is unpleasant to point out the bad and unfeeling
conduct of any color ; yet the defence we have under-
taken obliges us to remark, that although hardly any
of good character at that time could be procured, yet
only two colored women were at that time in the hos-
pital, and they were retained and the others dis-
charged, when it was reduced to order and good gov-
ernment.
BIGHT REV. RICHARD ALLEN. 59
The bad consequences many of our color apprehend
from a partial relation of our conduct are, that it will
prejudice the minds of the people in general against
us ; because it is impossible that one individual can
have knowledge of all ; therefore at some future day,
when some of the most virtuous that were upon most
praiseworthy motives, induced to serve the sick, may
fall into the service of a family that are strangers to
him or her, and it is discovered that it is one of those
stigmatized wretches, what may we suppose will be the
consequence ? Is it not reasonable to think the per-
son will be abhorred, despised and perhaps dismissed
from employment, to their great disadvantage? would
not this be hard ? and have we not therefore sufficient
reason to seek for redress ? We can with certainty
assure the public that we have seen more humanity,
more real sensibility from the poor colored than from
the poor whites. When many of the former, of their
own accord, rendered services where extreme necessity
called for it, the general part of the poor white people
were so dismayed, that instead of attempting to be
useful, they, in a manner, hid themselves. A re-
markable instance of this: A poor, afflicted, dying
man stood at his chamber window, praying and be-
seeching every one that passed by to help him to a
drink of water. A number of white people passed,
and instead of being moved by the poor man's dis-
tress, they hurried, as fast as they could, out of the
sound of his cries, until at length a gentleman, who
seemed to be a foreigner, came up. He could not
pass by, but had not resolution enough to go into the
house. He held eight dollars in his hand, and offered
it to several as a reward for giving the poor man a
drink of water, but was refused by every one, until a
poor colored man came up. The gentleman offered
the eight dollars to him, if he would relieve the poor
man with a little water. "Master," replied the good-
natured fellow, " I will supply the gentleman with
40 LIFE, EXPERIENCE, ETC., OF THE
water, but surely I will not take your money for it,"
nor could he be prevailed upon to accept his bounty.
He went in, supplied the poor object with water, and
rendered him every service he could.
A poor colored man, named Sampson, went con-
stantly from house to house where distress was, and
no assistance, without fee or reward. He was smitten
with the disorder, and died. After his death, his fam-
ily were neglected by those he had served.
Sarah Bass, a colored widow woman, gave all the
assistance she could in several families, for which she
did not receive anything ; and when anything was
offered her, she left it to the option of those she
served.
A colored woman nursed Richard Mason and son.
They died. Richard's widow, considering the risk the
poor woman had run, and from observing the fears
that sometimes rested on her mind, expected she would
have demanded something considerable ; but upon
asking her what she demanded, her reply was, " fifty
cents per day/' Mrs. Mason intimated it was not suf-
ficient for her attendance. She replied, that it was
enough for what she had done, and would take no
more. Mrs. Mason's feelings were such, that she set-
tled an annuity of 6/. a year on her for life. Her name
was Mary Scott.
An elderly, colored woman nursed with great
diligence and attention. When recovered, he asked
what he must give her for her services — she replied,
" a dinner, master, on a cold winter's day." And thus
she went from place to place, rendering every service
in her power, without an eye to reward.
A young colored woman was requested to attend
one night upon a white man and his wife, who were
very ill. No other person could be had. Great wages
were offered her — she replied, " I will not go for money,
if I go for money, God will see it and may make me
take the disorder and die ; but if I go and take no
RIGHT REV. RICHARD ALLEN. 41
nionev, be may spare my life. She went about 9
o'clock, and found ihem both on the floor. She could
procure no candle or other light, but staid with them
about two hours, and then left them. They both died
that night. She was afterwards very ill with the
fever. Her life was spared.
Caesar Crauehal, a man of color, offered his ser-
vices to attend the sick, and said, " 1 will not take
your money; I will not sell my life for money." It
is said he died with the flux.
A colored lad, at the widow Gilpin's, was intrusted
with his young master's keys, on his leaving the city,
and transacted his business with the greatest honesty
and despatch ; having unloaded a vessel for him in the
time, and loaded it again.
A woman that nursed David Bacon charged with
exemplary moderation, and said she would not have
any more.
It may be said in vindication of the conduct of those
who discovered ignorance or incapacity in nursing,
that, it is, in itself, a considerable art derived from
experience as well as the exercise of the finer feelings
of humanity. This experience nine-tenths of those
employed, it is probable, were wholly strangers to.
We do not recollect such acts of humanity from
the poor, white people, in all the round we have been
engaged in. We could mention many other instances
of the like nature, but think it needless.
It is unpleasant for us to make these remarks, but
justice to our color demands it. Mr. Carey pays Wil-
liam Gray and us a cempliment; he says, our services
and others of our color have been very great, &c. By
naming us, he leaves those others in the hazardous
state of being classed with those who are called the
"vilest." The few that were discovered to merit pub-
lic censure were brought to justice, which ought to
have sufficed, without being canvassed over in his
"Trifle" of a pamphlet; which causes us to be more
42 LIFE, EXPERIENCE, ETC., OF THE
particular, and endeavor to recall the esteem of the
public for our friends and the people of color, as far
as they may be found worthy ; for we conceive, and
experience proves it, that an ill name is easier given
than taken away. We have many unprovoked ene-
mies who begrudge us the liberty we enjoy, and are
glad to hear of any complaint against our color, be it
just or unjust; in consequence of which we are more
earnestly endeavoring all in our power, to warn, rebuke
and exhort our African friends to keep a conscience
void of offence towards God and man ; and at the
same time, would not be backward to interfere, when
stigmas or oppression appear pointed at or attempted
against them unjustly ; and we are confident we shall
stand justified in the sight of the candid and judicious
for such conduct.
We can assure the public that there were as many
white as black people detected in pilfering, although
the number of the latter, employed as nurses, was
twenty times as great as the former, and that there is,
in our opinion, as great a proportion of white
as of black inclined to such practices; and it is
rather to be admired that so few instances of pilfering
and robbery happened, considering the great opportu-
nities there were for such things. We do not know
of more than five colored people suspected of anything
clandestine, out of the great number employed. The
people were glad to get any person to assist them. A
colored person was preferred, because it was supposed
they were not so likely to take the disorder. The
most worthless were acceptable ; so that it would have
been no cause of wonder if twenty causes of complaint
had occurred for one that hath. It has been alleged
that many of the sick were neglected by the nurses;
we do not wonder at it, considering their situation ; in
many instances up night and day, without any one to
relieve them ; worn down with fatigue and want of
sleep they could not, in many cases, render that assist-
RIGHT REV. RICHARD ALLEN. 43
ance which was needful. Where we visited, the causes
of complaint on this score were not numerous. The
case of the nurses, in many instances, were deserving
of commiseration ; the patient raging and frightful
to behold. It has frequently required two persons to
hold them from running away ; others have made
attempts to jump out of a window, in many chambers
they were nailed down and the door kept locked to
prevent them from running away or breaking their
necks ; others lay vomiting blood and screaming
enough to chill them with horror. Thus were many
of the nurses circumstanced, alone, until the patient
died ; then called away to another scene of distress,
and thus have been, for a week or ten days, left to do
the best they could, without any sufficient rest, many
of them having some of their clearest connections sick
at the time and suffering for want, while their hus-
band, wife, father, mother, &c, have been engaged in
the service of the white people. We mention this to
show the difference between this and nursing in com-
mon cases. We have suffered equally with the whites;
our distress hath been very great, but much unknown
to the white people. Few have been the whites that
paid attention to us, while the colored persons were
engaged in others' service. We can assure the public
that we have taken four and five colored people in a
day to be buried. In several instances, when they
have been seized with the sickness, while nursing, they
have been turned out of the house, wandering and
destitute, until they found shelter wherever they could
(as many of them would not be admitted to their
former homes), they have languished alone, and we
know of one who even died in a stable. Others acted
with more tenderness ; when their nurses were taken
sick, they had proper care taken of them at their
houses. We know of two instances of this. It is even
to this day a generally received opinion in this city,
that our color was not so liable to the sickness as the
44 LIFE, EXPERIENCE, ETC., OF THE
whites. We hope our friends will pardon us for setting
this mutter in its true state.
The public were informed that in the West Indies
and other places, where this terrible malady had been,
it was observed that the blacks were not affected with
it. Happy would it have been for you, and much
more so for us, if this observation had been verified by
our experience.
When the people of color had the sickness and died,
we were imposed upon, and told it was not with the
prevailing sickness, until it became too notorious to be
denied ; then we were told some few died, but not
many. Thus were our services extorted at the peril
of our lives. Yet you accuse us of extorting a little
money from you.
The bill of mortality for the year 1793, published
by Matthew Whitehead and John Ormrod, clerks, and
Joseph Dolby, sexton, will convince any reasonable
man that will examine it, that as many colored people
died in proportion as others. In 1792 there were 67
of our color buried, and in 1793 it amounted to 305;
thus the burials among us have increased more than
fourfold. Was not this in a great degree the effects
of the services of the unjustly vilified colored people?
Perhaps it may be acceptable to the reader to know
how we found the sick affected by the sickness. Our
opportunities of hearing and seeing them have been
very great. They were taken with a chill, a head-ache,
a sick stomach, with pains in their limbs and back.
This was the way the sickness in general began ; but
all were not affected alike. Some appeared but
slightly affected with some of those symptoms. What
confirmed us in the opinion of a person being smitten
was the color of their eves. In some it raged more
furiously than in others. Some have languished for
seven and ten days, and appeared to get better the
day, or some hours before they died, while others were
cut off in one, two or three days ; but their complaints
EIGHT KEY. RTCnAKD ALLEX. 45
were similar. Some lost their reason, and raged with
all the fury, madness could produce, and died in
strong convulsions ; others retained their reason to the
last, and seemed rather to fall asleep than die. We
could not help remarking that the former were of
strong passions, and the latter of a mild temper. Num-
bers died in a kind of dejection ; they concluded they
must go (so the phrase for dying was), and therefore
in a kind of fixed, determined state of mind went off.
It struck our minds with awe to have application
made by those in health, to take charge of them in
their sickness, and of their funeral. Such applica-
tions have been made to us. Many appeared as though
they thought they must die and not live; some have
lain on the floor to be measured for their coffins and
graves.
A gentleman called one evening to request a good
nurse might be got for him when he was sick, and to
superintend his funeral, and gave particular directions
how he would have it conducted. It seemed a sur-
prising circumstance; for the man appeared at the
time to be in perfect health • but calling two or three
days after, to see him, found a woman dead in the
house, and the man so far gone, that to administer
anything for his recovery was needless — he died that
evening. We mention this as an instance of the de-
jection and despondence that took hold on the minds
of thousands, and are of opinion that it aggravated
the case of many ; while others who bore up cheerfully
got up again, that probably would otherwise have
died.
When the mortality came to its greatest stage, it
was impossible to procure sufficient assistance; there-
fore many, whose friends and relations had left them,
died unseen and unassisted. We have found them in
various situations — some lying on the floor, as bloody
as if they had been dipped in it, without any appear-
ance of their having had even a drink of water for
46 LIFE, EXPERIENCE, ETC., OF THE
their relief ; others lying on a bed with their clothes
on, as if they had come in fatigued and lain down to
rest ; some appeared as if they had fallen dead on the
floor, from the position we found them in.
Surely our task was hard ; yet through mercy we
were enabled to go on.
One thing we observed in several instances: when
we were called, on the first appearance of the disorder,
to bleed, the person frequently, on the opening of a
vein, and before the operation was near over, felt a
change for the better, and expressed a relief in their
chief complaints ; and we made it a practice to take
more blood from them than is usual in other cases.
These, in a general way, recovered ; those who omitted
bleeding any considerable time, after being taken by
the sickness, rarely expressed any change they felt in
the operation.
We feel a great satisfaction in believing that we
have been useful to the sick, and thus publicly thank
Dr. Benjamin Rush for enabling us to be so. We
have bled upwards of eight hundred people, and do
declare we have not received to the value of a dollar
and a half therefor. We were willing to imitate the
doctor's benevolence, who, sick or well, kept his house
open day and night, to give what assistance he could
in this time of trouble.
Several affecting instances occurred when we were
engaged in burying the dead. We have been called
to bury some, who, when we came, we found alone ;
at other places, we found a parent dead, and none but
little innocent babes to be seen, whose ignorance led
them to think their parent was asleep ; on account of
their situation and their little prattle, we have been
so wounded and our feelings so hurt, that we almost
concluded to withdraw from our undertaking; but,
seeing others so backward, we still went on.
An affecting instance: A woman died; we were
sent for to bury her. On our going into the house,
RIGHT REV. RICHARD ALLEN. 47
and taking the coffin in, a dear little innocent accosted
us with " Mamma is asleep — don't wake her !" but
when she saw us put her into the coffin, the distress of
the child was so great that it almost overcame us.
When she demanded why we put her mamma in the
box, we did not know how to answer her, but com-
mitted her to the care of a neighbor, and left her with
heavy hearts. In other places, where we have been
to take the corpse of a parent, and have found a group
of little ones alone, some of them, in a measure, capa-
ble of knowing their situation ; their cries, and the
innocent confusion of the little ones, seemed almost
too much for human nature to bear. We have picked
up little children that were wandering they knew not
where (whose parents had been cut off), and taken,
them to the orphan house ; for at this time the dread
that prevailed over people's minds was so general, that
it was a rare instance to see one neighbor visit another,
and friends, when they met in the streets, were afraid
of each other ; much less would they admit into their
houses the distressed orphan that had been where the
sickness was. This extreme seemed, in some instances,
to have the appearance of barbarity. With reluctance
we call to mind the many opportunities there were in
the power of individuals to be useful to their fellow
men, yet through the terror of the times were omitted.
A colored man riding through the street, saw a man
push a woman out of the house; the woman staggered
and fell on her face in the gutter ; and was not able
to turn herself. The colored man thought she was
drunk, but observing that she was in danger of suffo-
cation, alighted, and taking the woman up, found her
perfectly sober, but so far gone with the disorder that
she was not able to help herself. The hard-hearted man
that threw her down, shut the door and left her. In
such a situation she might have perished in a few
minutes. We heard of it, and took her to Bush Hill.
Many of the white people, who ought to be patterns
48 LIFE, EXFEEIEXCE, ETC., OF THE
for us to follow after, have acted in a manner that
would make humanity shudder. We remember au
instance of cruelty, which, we trust, no colored man
would be guilty of: Two sisters, orderly, decent, white
women, were sick with the fever. One of them re-
covered, so as to come to the door. A neighboring
white man saw her, and in an angry tone asked her
if her sister was dead or not? She answered, "No,"
upon which lie replied, " Damn her, if she don't die
before morning, I will make her die!" The poor
woman, shocked at such an expression from this mon-
ster of a man, made a modest reply, upon which he
snatched up a tub of water, and would have dashed
it over her, if he had not been prevented by a col-
ored. He then went and took a couple of fowls out
of a coop (which had been given them for nourish-
ment), and threw them into an open alley. He had
his wish ; the poor woman that he would make die,
died that night.
A white man threatened to shoot us, if we passed
by his house with a corpse. We buried him three
days after.
We have been pained to see the widows come to us,
crying and wringing their hands, and in very great
distress, on account of their husbands' death ; hav-
ing nobody to help them, they were obliged to come
and get their husbands buried. Their neighbors were
afraid to go to their help, or to condole with them.
We ascribe such unfriendly conduct to the frailty of
human nature.
Notwithstanding the compliment Mr. Carey hath
paid us, we have found reports spread of our taking
between one and two hundred beds from houses where
people died. Such slanderers as these, who propagate
such wilful lies, are dangerous, although unworthy;
and we wish, if any person hath the least suspicion of
us, they wrould endeavor to bring us. to the punishment
which such atrocious conduct must deserve; and by
HtGHT REV. RlCHARl) ALLEN. 49
this means the innocent will be cleared from reproach,
and the guilty known.
We shall now conclude with the following proverb,
which we think applicable to those of our color, who
exposed their lives in the late afflicting dispensation :
God and a soldier all men do adore
In time of war and not before ;
When the war is over, and all things righted,
God is forgotten, and the soldier slighted.
To MATTHEW CLARKSON, Esq, Mayor of
the City of Philadelphia.
Sir — For the personal respect we bear you, and for
the satisfaction of the mayor, we declare, that to the
best of our remembrance we had the care of the fol-
lowing beds, and no more :
Two, belonging to James Starr, we buried ; upon
taking them up, we fouud one damaged, the blankets,
&c, belonging to it were stolen. It was refused to
be accepted of by his son Moses. It was buried again,
and remains so, for aught we know ; the other was re-
turned and accepted of.
We buried two belonging to Samuel Fisher, mer-
chant ; one of them was taken up by us to carry a
sick person on to Bush Hill, and there left ; the other
was buried in a grave, under a corpse.
Two beds were buried for Thomas Willing — one,
six feet deep, in his garden, and lime and water thrown
upon it; the other was in the Potter's field, and
further knowledge of it we have not.
We burned one bed, with other furniture and
clothing, belonging to the late mayor, Samuel Powell,
on his farm on the west side of Schuylkill river. We
buried one of his beds.
4
50 LIFE, EXPERIENCE, ETC., OF THE
For Dickinson we buried a bed in a lot of
Richard Allen, which we have good cause to believe
was stolen.
One bed was buried for a person in Front street,
whose name is unknown to us — it was buried in the Pot-
ter's field by a person employed for the purpose. We
told him he might take it up again, after it had been
buried a week, and apply it to his own use, as he said
that he had lately been discharged from the hospital
and had none to lie on.
Thomas Leiper's two beds were buried in the Pot-
ter's field and remained there a week, and was then
taken up by us for the use of the sick that we took to
Bush Hill, and left there.
We buried one for Smith, in the Potter's field,
which was returned, except the furniture, which we
believe was stolen.
One other we buried, for Davis, in Vine street ;
it was buried near Schuylkill, and we believe con-
tinues so.
A bed from Guest, in Second street, was b iried
in the Potter's field, and is there yet for anything we
know.
One bed we buried in the Presbyterian burial
ground, the corner of Pine and Fourth streets, and we
believe was taken up the owner, Thomas Mitchell.
Milligan, in Second street, had a bed buried
by us in the Potter's field. We have no further
knowledge of it.
This is a true statement of matters respecting the
beds, as far as we were concerned. We never under-
took the charge of more than their burial, knowing
they were liable to be taken away by evil-minded per-
sons. We think it beneath the dignity of an honest
man (although injured in his reputation by wicked
aud envious persons), to vindicate or support his char-
acter by an oath or legal affirmation. We fear not
our enemies; let them come forward with their charges;
RIGHT REV. RICHARD ALLEN. 5 1
We will riot flinch ; and if they can fix any crime upon
us, we refuse not to suffer.
Sir, you have cause to believe our lives were en-
dangered in more cases than one, in the time of the
late mortality, and that we were so discouraged, that
had it not been for your persuasion, we would have
relinquished our disagreeable and dangerous employ-
ments ; and we hope there is no impropriety in soli-
citing a certificate of your approbation of our conduct,
so far as it hath come to your knowledge.
With an affectionate regard and esteem,
We are your friends,
Absalom Jones,
Richard All ex.
January 7th, 1794.
Having, during the prevalence of the late malig-
nant disorder, had almost daily opportunities of seeing
the conduct of Absalom Jones and Richard Allen,
and the people employed by them to bury the dead : I
with cheerfulness give this testimony of my approba-
tion of their proceedings, so far as they came under
my notice. Their diligence, attention and decency of
deportment, afforded me, at the time, much satisfac-
tion. Matthew Clarkson, Mayor.
Philadelphia, Jan. 23d, 1794.
AN ADDRESS
To those who keep Slaves and approve the
practice :
The judicious part of mankind, will think it unrea-
sonable, that a superior good conduct is looked for
52 LIFE, EXPERIENCE, ETC., OF THE
from our race, by those who stigmatize us as men,
whose baseness is incurable, and may therefore be held
in a state of servitude, that a merciful mau would
not doom a beast to ; vet you try what you can to
prevent our rising from a state of barbarism you rep-
resent us to be in ; but we can tell you from a degree
of experience, that a black man, although reduced to
the most abject state human nature is capable of,
short of real madness, can think, reflect and feel in-
juries, although it may not be with the same degree
of keen resentment and revenge that you, who have
been and are our great oppressors would manifest, if
reduced to the pitiable condition of a slave. We be-
lieve if you would try the experiment of taking a few
black children, and cultivate their minds with the
same care and let them have the same prospect in view
as to living in the world, as you would wish for your
own children, you would find upon the trial, they were
not inferior in mental endowments. I do not wish to
make you angry, but excite your attention to consider
how hateful slavery is in the sight of that God who
hath destroyed kings and princes for their oppression
of the poor slaves. Pharoah and his princes, with the
posterity of King Saul, were destroyed by the protec-
tor and avenger of slaves. Would you not suppose
the Israelites to be utterly unfit for freedom and that
it was impossible for them to obtain to any degree of
excellence? Their history shows how slavery had de-
based their spirits. Men must be wilfully blind and
extremely partial, that cannot see the contrary effects
of liberty and slavery upon the mind of man ; I truly
confess the vile habits often acquired in a state of
servitude, are not easily thrown off; the example of
the Israelites shows, who with all that Moses could do
to reclaim them from it, still continued in their habits
more or less; and why will you look for better from
us ? why will you look for grapes from thorns, or figs
from thistles ? It is in our posterity enjoying the
RIGHT REV. RICHARD ALLEN. 53
same privileges with your own, that you ought to look
for better things.
When you are pleaded with, do not you reply as
Pharoah did, " Wherefore do ye, Moses and Aaron,
let the people from their work, behold the people of
the land now are many, and you make them rest from
their burthens." We wish you to consider, that God
himself was the first pleader of the cause of slaves.
That God, who knows the hearts of all men, and
the propensity of a slave to hate his oppressor, hath
strictly forbidden it to his chosen people, " Thou shalt
not abhor an Egyptian, because thou wast a stranger in
his land." Deut. 23, 7. The meek and humble Jesus,
the great pattern of humanity and every other virtue
that can adorn and dignify men, hath commanded to
love our enemies ; to do good to them that hate and
despitefully use us. I feel the obligations ; I wish to
impress them on the minds of our colored brethren,
and that we may all forgive you, as we wish to be for-
given ; we think it a great mercy to have all anger
and bitterness removed from our minds. I appeal to
your own feelings, if it is not very disquieting to feel
yourselves under the dominion of wrathful disposition.
If you love your children, if you love your country,
if you love the God of love, clear your hands from
slaves ; burthen not your children or your country
with them. My heart has been sorry for the blood
shed of the oppressors, as well as the oppressed ; both
appear guilty of each others' blood, in the sight of him
who hath said, " He that sheddeth man's blood, by
man shall his blood be shed."
Will you, because you have reduced us to the un-
happy condition our color is in, plead our incapacity
for freedom, and our contented condition under op-
pression, as a sufficient cause for keeping us under the
grievous yoke? I have shown the cause, I will also
show why they appear contented as they can in your
sight, but the dreadful insurrections they have m&de
54 LIFE, EXPERIENCE, ETC., OF THE
when opportunity lias offered, is enough to convince a
reasonable man that great uneasiness and not content-
ment is the inhabitant of their hearts. God himself
hath pleaded their cause ; He hath from time to time
raised up instruments for that purpose, sometimes
mean and contemptible in your sight, at other times
He hath used such as it hath pleased him, with whom
you have not thought it beneath your dignity to con-
tend. Many have been convinced of their error, con-
demned their former conduct, and become zealous ad-
vocates for the cause of those whom you will not suffer
to plead for themselves.
TO THE PEOPLE OF COLOR.
Feeling an engagement of mind for your welfare,
I address you with an affectionate sympathy, having
been a slave, and as desirous of freedom as any of you ;
yet the bands of bondage were so strong that no way
appeared for my release; yet at times a hope arose in
my heart that a way would open for it ; and when my
mind was mercifully visited with the feeling of the
love of God, then these hopes increased, and a confi-
dence arose that he would make way for my enlarge-
ment ; and as a patient waiting was necessary, I was
sometimes favored with it, at other times I was very
impatient. Then the prospect of liberty almost van
ished away, and I was in darkness and perplexity.
I mention experience to you, that your hearts may
not sink at the discouraging prospects you may have,
and that you may put your trust in God, who sees your
condition, and as a merciful father pitieth his child-
ren, so doth God pity them that love Him ; and as
your hearts are inclined to serve God, you will feel
EIGHT KEV. RICIIAKD ALLEN. 55
an affectionate regard towards your masters and mis-
tresses, so called, and the whole family in which you
live. This will be seen by them, and tend to promote
your liberty, especially with such as have feeling mas-
ters; and if they are otherwise, you will have the
fovor and love of God dwelling in your hearts, which
you will value more than anything else, which will be
a consolation in the worst condition you can be in,
and no master can deprive you of it ; and as life is
short and uncertain, and the chief end of our having
a being in this world is to be prepared for a better, I
wish you to think of this more than anything else;
then you will have a view of that freedom which the
sons of God enjoy ; and if the troubles of your condi-
tion end with your lives, you will be admitted to the
freedom which God hath prepared for those of all
colors that love him. Here the power of the most
cruel master ends, and all sorrow and tears are wiped
away.
To you who are favored with freedom, let your
conduct manifest your gratitude toward the compas-
sionate masters who have set you free ; and let no
rancour or ill-will lodge in your breast for any bad
treatment you may have received from any. If you
do, you transgress against God, who will not hold you
guiltless. He would not suffer it even in his beloved
people Israel ; and you think he will allow it unto us?
Many of the white people have been instruments in
the hands of God for our good ; even such as have
held us in captivity, are now pleading our cause with
earnestness and zeal ; and I am sorry to say, that too
many think more of the evil than of the good they
have received, and instead of taking the advice of
their friends, turn from it with indifference. Much
depends upon us for the help of our color — more than
many are aware. If we are lazy and idle, the enemies
of freedom piead it as a cause why we ou^ht not to be
free, and say we are better in a state of servitude, and
56 LIFE, EXPERIENCE, ETC., OF THE
that giving us our liberty would be an injury to us;
and by such conduct we strengthen the bands of op-
pression and koep many in bondage who are more
worthy than ourselves. I entreat you to consider the
obligations we lie under to help forward the cause of
freedom. We who know how bitter the cup is of which
the slave hath to drink, O, how ought we to feel for
those who yet remain in bondage ! Will even our friends
excuse — will God pardon us — for the part we act in
making strong the hands of the enemies of our color r
A short Address to the Friends of Him who
hath no Helper :
I feel an inexpressible gratitude towards you who
have engaged in the cause of the African race ; you
have wrought a deliverance for many from more than
Egyptian bondage ; your labors are unremitted for
their complete redemption from the cruel subjection
they are in. You feel our afflictions ; you sympathise
with us in the heartrending distress, when the husband
is separated from the wife, and the parents from the
children, who are never more to meet in this world.
The tear of sensibility trickles from your eye to see
the sufferings that keep us from increasing. Your
righteous indignation is roused at the means taken to
supply the place of the murdered babe ; you see our
race more effectually destroyed than was in Pharaoh's
power to effect upon Israel's sons ; you blow the
trumpet against the mighty evil ; you make the
tyrants tremble ; you strive to raise the slave to
the dignity of a man ; you take our children by
the hand to lead them in the path of virtue,
by your care of our education ; you are not ashamed
to call the most abject of our race brethren, children
RIGHT REV. RICHARD ALLEN. 57
of one Father, who hath made of one blood all the
nations of the earth. You ask for this nothing for
yourselves ; nothing but what is worthy the cause you
are engaged in ; nothing but that we would be friends
to ourselves, and not strengthen the bands of oppres-
sion by an evil conduct, when led out of the house of
bondage. May He, who hath arisen to plead our
cause and engaged you as volunteers in the service,
add to your numbers, until the princes shall come
forth from Egypt, and Ethiopia stretch out her hands
unto God.
Richard Allen.
Ye ministers that are called to preaching,
Teachers and exhorters too,
Awake ! behold your harvest wasting ;
Arise ! there is no rest for you.
To think upon that strict commandment
That God has on his teachers laid
The sinners' blood, who die unwarned,
Shall fall upon their shepherd's head.
But, 0 ! dear brethren, let's be doing —
Behold the nations in distress ;
The Lord of hosts forbid their ruin,
Before the day of grace is past.
We read of wars and great commotions,
Before the great and dreadful day ;
Oh ! sinners, turn your sinful courses,
And trifle not your time away.
But oh ! dear sinners, that's not all that's dreadful ;
You must before your God appear,
To give an account of your transactions,
And how you spent your time when here.
Our Saviour's first and great work was that of the
salvation of mens' souls ; yet we find that of the mul-
titudes who came or were brought to Him laboring
under sickness and disorders, He never omitted one
opportunity of doing good to their bodies, or sent away
one that applied to Him without a perfect cure ;
though sometimes, for the trial of their faith, He suf-
58 LIFE, EXPERIENCE, ETC., OF THE
fered Himself to be importuned. And that He also
often administered to the necessities of the poor in
money is plain from several passages of His life, one of
which may suffice for the present, viz. : When Satan
had entered into Judas, and our blessed Saviour had
said, " That thou doest do quickly ;" none of the other
disciples knew for what intent He had so spoken ; for
some of them thought, because Judas had the bag or
common purse, that either He had ordered him to buy
what was necessary against the feast, or (as was usual,
no doubt, otherwise they could not have supposed it)
that he should give something to the poor.
To this unanswerable proof from our Saviour's prac-
tice may be added His repeated precepts and exhorta-
tions ; for His examples and doctrines were always of
a piece. " A new commandment," says he, " I give
unto you, that ye love one auother. By this shall all
men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to
another. This is my commandment, that ye love one
another as I have loved you. Greater love hath no
man than this, that a man lay down his life for his
friends. I say unto you which hear, love your ene-
mies, aud do good to them which hate you ; bless them
that curse you aud pray for them which despitefully
use you. Love your enemies, and do good and lend,
hoping for nothing again, and your reward shall be
great and ye shall be the children of the Highest ; for
he is kind to the unthankful and to the evil. Be ye
therefore merciful as your Father also is merciful."
From these few passages may be collected the nature,
extent and necessity of Christian charity. In its nature
it is pure and disinterested, remote from all hopes or
views of worldly return or recompense from the per-
sons we relieve. We are to do good and lend, hoping
for nothing again. In its extent it is unlimited and
universal ; and, though it requires that an especial
regard be had to our fellow Christians, is confined to
no persons, countries or places, but takes in all man-
RIGHT REV. RICHARD ALLEN. 59
kind, strangers as well as relations or acquaintances,
enemies as well as friends, the evil and unthankful, as
well as the good and grateful. It has no other measure
than the love of God to us, who gave His only begot-
ten Son, and the love of our Saviour, who laid down
His life for us, even whilst we were his enemies. It
reaches not only to the good of the soul, but also to
such assistance as may be necessary for the supply of
the bodily wants of our fellow creatures.
And the absolute necessity of practising this duty
is the very same with that of being Christians ; this
being the only sure mark by which we may be known
and distinguished from such as are not Christians or
disciples of Christ. " By this shall all men know that
ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another."
Hearken to St. Paul, speaking of this most excel-
lent way or duty, and then judge ye, my brethren, of
the necessity of putting it in practice:
" Though I speak with the tongue of men and angels
and have not charity, I am become as a sounding brass
or a tinkling cymbal. And though I have the gift
of prophecy, and understand all mysteries, and all
knowledge, and though I have all faith, so that I could
remove mountains, and have not charity, I am noth-
ing. And though I bestow all my goods to feed the
poor, and though I give my body to be burned, and
have not charity, it profiteth nothing."
But these articles will receive a considerable light
from the consideration of the second point, viz., the
benefits and advantages arising from the practice of
Christian charity.
In which as the present occasion more especially
points out to us, we may take a short, general view of
the advantages and benefits attending the exercise of
that particular branch of Christian pharity, which
consists in the applying and bestowing some part of
our substance or the produce of our labors towards
the relief and support of the poor aud needy ; or in
60 LIFE, EXPERIENCE, ETC., OF THE
contributing towards such works of piety and mercy
as are intended and contrived for the real good and
bettering the condition of our indigent brethren, either
by public or private ways of charity. And by this
we improve our talents to the glory of God and the
welfare of our own immortal souls.
Consider, my brethren, that all we have and are is
intrusted to us by Almighty God. In him we live,
move ard have our being. The earth is the Lord's,
and the fulness (or plenty) thereof. We are conse-
quently no more than his servants or stewards ; the
talents are all his ; it is his substance that is distributed
by him among us, to some more, to some less, as it has
pleased him to intrust us with our own several por-
tions or dividends ; and to him we must give an account
at the great day of reckoning, for every peuny — for
the improvement as well as for the principal.
Our blessed Lord has not committed his goods to
us as a dead stock, to be hoarded up, or to lie unprofit-
ably in our own hands. He expects that we shall put
them out to proper and beneficial uses, and raise them
to an advanced value by doing good with them, as
often as we have opportunity of laying them out upon
the real interest and welfare of his poor children and
subjects. By doing acts of mercy and charity, we
acknowledge our dependence upon God, and his ab-
solute right to whatever we possess through his bounty
and goodness ; we glorify him in his creatures, and
reverence him by a due and cheerful obedience to his
commands. By applying our substance to the pomps
and vanities of this wicked world, or the gratification
of the sinful lusts of the flesh, we deny God's right
to what he hath thought fit to place in our hands ;
and disown him as our master by laying out his sub-
stance in ways expressly contrary to his orders; we
thereby gratify Satan, whom we renounced at our
baptism, and most shamefully dishonor our Maker by
the abuse of his talents. When, therefore, we are
BIGHT HEV. RICHARD ALLEN. 61
called to a reckoning at that awful tribunal before
which the most wealthy and powerful upon earth shall
appear as naked and friendless as the poorest beggar,
and when nothing but the goodness of our cause, and
the mercy of our judge, can afford us the least support
if in that strict and solemn examination we have no
better accounts to give in, than — so much laid out in
luxury and extravagance, rapine and oppression ; so
much in a vexatious, litigious lawsuit, or other idle,
useless diversions, but little or nothing in chanty.
Shillings and pounds upon our vanity and folly, but
scarce a few pence upon doing good ! With what
shame and confusion shall we hang down our heads,
and wish for rocks and mountains to cover us, not only
from the view of our justly offended master, but from
the eyes of angels and men, all witnesses of our dis-
grace !
Some may, perhays, say, " Well, I have refrained
from debauchery, folly and idleness ; I have earned
my honest penny, and kept it/and laid up a comforta-
ble provision for my family." Be it so ; this is lauda-
ble and praiseworthy, and it were to be wished that
many more in this country would do so much. But
may not such a one be asked, have you been chari-
table withal? have you been as industrious in laying
up treasures in heaven, as you have been in hoarding
up the perishable riches of this world ? Have you
stretched out your hand, as you had opportunity, be-
yond the circle of your own house and family ? Have
your poorer neighbors cause to bless you for your kind
and charitable assistance ? Have you dedicated any
portion of your labors to God, who blessed them, by
doing good to any besides your own ? Has the
stranger, the widow or the fatherless ever tasted of
your bounty? If you have never done things of this
kind, but have hitherto slighted, overlooked or put off
occasions of this sort, your talent is as yet hid in a
napkin, it lies yet buried in the ground, huddled up
62 LTFE, EXPERIENCE, ETC., OF THE
within yourself. And consider further, that the real
poor and needy are Christ's representatives. We can-
riot, surely, doubt of this, if we look into our Saviour's
own account of the last judgment, 25th chap, of St.
Matthew's Gospel, which plainly shows us that the
inquiry at that great and solemn day will be very par-
ticular about our works of mercy and charity : " Inas-
much as ye have done, or inasmuch as ye have not
done it to the least of these, my brethren, ve have
done, or ye have not done it to me." When, there-
fore, an object of charity, or an opportunity of doing
good, presents itself, the prudent Christian will not
once deliberate, shall I relieve this man or this woman ?
shall 1 assist this widow, this orphan, or this poor
child ? No, hi rather considers it as a demand made
upon him by Christ, himself, and would be as much
afraid to delay or refuse payment in such case, as if
he saw his Lord and Saviour coming to ask it of him
in person. The question, therefore, with him is this:
D) not thi holy Seriptures expressly teach me that
whatsoever I do to my brethren who stand in need,
will be reckoned to me as if I had done it to Christ
himself? Can I relieve them without relieving Him, or
can I neglect them without slighting Him ? What
hope could I have of being received and accepted of
Him at the last day, or that He will then hearken to
my cries for mercy and forgiveness, should I be re-
gardless of the requests He now makes to me by His
members and representatives? I earnestly desire my
Lord may have mercy upon me; therefore will I
cheerfully show mercy to this His brother, however
little or contemptible he may appear. I ardently wish
my Lord may show goodness to me at the great day of
reckoning; therefore will I seize the present opportu-
nity of doing good, which He, in His good will towards
me, now offers to my acceptance.
The accustoming ourselves to those acts, separates
EIGHT REV. RICHARD ALLEN. 6&
our affections from earthly things ; learns us to sit
loose to the world and secures us treasures in heaven.
To people who are heartily in love with this world;
who can see no greater happiness than wealth or power
upon earth can afford them, such advantages, I own,
are in no sort alluring. To talk of placing their affec-
tions upon possessions beyond the grave, or of lessen-
iug their present gains, in hopes of future benefits, is
much to the same purpose as setting a most beautiful
prospect before a blind man, or the most delicate meats
before one who has lost his palate.
The person who has a due regard to his eternal sal-
vation ; who knows by experience how apt the love of
earthly things is to draw off his affections from those
of a heavenly nature ; who remembers that he ought
not to love the world, nor the things that are in the
world, because the friendship of this world is enmity
with God, and that whosoever will be a friend (or
lover) of the world is the enemy of God; who reflects
that a time will come when he must pare with all that
is dear to him here; how necessary it is, therefore, to
wean his mind from these perishable things, that they
may give him no pain or uneasiness in quitting them,
and is convinced that the whole world is of infinitely
less value than the least inheritance in the kingdom
of heaven. Sueh a one is always prepared to exercise
himself in acts of mercy and charity ; giving up a part,
whenever opportunity offers of doing good, in token of
his readiness to give up the whole whensoever God
shall please to call upon him for it ; and rejoices in
the means afforded him of laying up treasures subject
to no waste, rapine or corruption, at the small expense
of a trifling sum here; nay, is ready, should it appear
necessary, to follow the advice of our Saviour to his
little flock, u Sell that ye have, and give alms; pro-
vide yourselves bags which wax not old, a treasure in
the heavens which faileth not.'1
In short, the love of this world is a heavy weight
64
LIFE, EXPERIENCE, ETC., OF THE
upon the soul, which chains her down and prevents
her flight towards heaven. Habitual acts of charity
loosen her from it by degrees, and help her in her
struggle to disengage herself and mount upwards.
A dying person would give the whole world, were
it in his possession, for any rational assurance of ac-
ceptance with God, and an inheritance in the kingdom
of heaven ; why then will any man who knows he must
one day die, neglect the insuring it to himself by such
works of mercy in his health and strength, as he mav
be assured will help him to mercy in a dying hour?
" Blessed are the merciful," saith our dear Redeemer,
" for they shall obtain mercy. "
Another advantage arising from acts of mercy and
charity is, that they secure us the blessing and pro-
tection of heaven.
" Blessed is he," saith King David, " who consider-
ed the poor and needy ; the Lord will deliver him in
the time of trouble. The Lord will preserve him and
keep him alive, and he shall be blessed upon the earth,
and Thou wilt not deliver him iuto the will of his
enemies. The Lord will strengthen him upon the
bed of languishing ; Thou wilt make all his bed in his
sickness." To be slow and uneasy at almsgiving, ar-
gues a strong distrust in Providence, either that God
cannot or will not make up to us what we thus bestow.
To suppose he cannot, is to deny his Almighty power
and consequently that he is God. To imagine he will
not, is to suspect his truth, who has not only promised
eternal treasures in heaven, but has also engaged his
sure word that he will repay it, even upon earth, as
if it were lent to himself. He that hath pity upon the
poor lendeth to the Lord, and that which he hath bor-
rowed, he will repay him again.
With how great reason did our Saviour so solemnly
charge his disciples to beware of covetousness, since
we see it borders so nearly upon infidelity. How
strangely inconsistent is the narrow-hearted man with
RIGHT REV. RICXIAIID ALLEN. G3
himself, with his own settled principles ! He desires a
blessing upon all that he has; he earnestly wishes for
wealth and prosperity, yet cannot find in his heart to lay
out a little of what he has to secure that blessing, that
prosperity he aims at for himself and family, in doing
these good and charitable actions which Providence
throws in his way, and which God has assured him will
purchase it ! How much more rationally does the open-
hearted, benevolent Christian act, and upon what sura
and steady principles does he proceed ! This trifle,
says he to himself, which I now bestow, may possibly
be of some, small, present inconvenience to me, but
it is given to God, and He will never suffer me to feel
the want of it. My Saviour has kindly insured to me
whatever is necessary in this world, by promising, that
if I first seek the kingdom of God and his righteous-
ness, aud these things, which others are toiling and
sweating after, often to no purpose but vexation ami
disappointment, shall be added unto me. Here are
both earthly and heavenly blessings laid before me,
so that I cannot fail of a return from God, though he
hath expressly ordered me to hope for nothing again
from those I give to. I shall therefore assuredly reap
according to my sowing — in this world, if God sees it
good for me, but most certainly in the blessings of the
next, if I grow not faint or impatient. My alms will
ascend up before God for a memorial ; and as he has
taken the payment upon himself, I am convinced ilia
even a cup of cold water thus bestowed, by those who
have no more to give, will not lose its reward ; for
Jesus has promised, and in him all the promises of
God are yea and amen.
Having thus gone through the proposed heads, and
shown the nature, the extent and necessity of Christian
charity; having pointed out the benefits and advan-
tages arising from the practice of it, and how it, secures
to us the blessings, both of this world and the world
to come, it now remains that some common objections
5 - J
66 LIFE, EXPERIENCE, ETC., CF THE
be considered, with a short application to the present
design. Objections, I know, are many, and each per-
son unwilling to contribute towards a charitable pro-
posal will find out one of some kind or other, to ward
off the blow that seems to aim at his very heart.
Numerous, however, as they are, they appear so trifling
as to deserve little particular consideration and might
well enough be examined in bulk.
All objections to charitable contributions may well
be supposed to arise from covetousness, or an unwill-
ingness to part with the present penny. Covetousness
is indeed a Goliah, a giant of the first magnitude,
which is always ready to defy and set at naught the
best formed arguments and motives drawn from rea-
son and Scripture, all the armies of the living God.
All the common pretences to prudence in the manner
or time of giving charity, all hints of reserving it for
better purposes, generally centre in covetousness, in
the love of money ; and how wretched a fruit is to be
expected from the root of all evil, as St. Paul ex-
pressly calls it, let every one judge for himself.
But the answer to all such pretences of prudence in
bestowing, in short, is this : you may be deceived in
the object, but you never can be deceived in your in-
tention of charity, be the object ever so undeserving;
nay, should I bestow money upon one in apparent neces-
sity, who might abuse it to ill purposes, yet the good
intention sanctifies my gift, consecrates it to God, and
insures me a blessing, because it was done in His name
and for His sake ; while the whole abuse of it rests
upon the guilty head of the vile person who thus
basely misapplies my good deed. It may, indeed, be a
reasonable objection against my giving a second time
to that same person, but can be no excuse to me for
withholding my hand from the relief of any other ob-
ject which may appear another time to be in real
want of charity.
And O ! consider what a joyful thing it must be for
RIGHT REV. RICHARD ALLEN. 67
a person in a dying hour to have a conscience free
from offence, and to see their blessed Saviour, with
His arras stretched out, ready to receive them when
their breath leaves the body, and saying, " Well done,
thou good and faithful servant ; thou hast been faithful
over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many
things; enter thou into the joy of thy Lord." Are
not these, my brethren and sisters, pleasures worth
seeking after? Are not these privileges, this freedom
and these possessions of far more value than thousands
of worlds like this we live in, which we must all leave
in a short time, and cannot carry with us into another
life ? And can you ever sufficiently admire the good-
ness of God, or ever be thankful enough to Him for
His loving kindness, who hath set these glories and
these enjoyments as much within the reach of the
poorest slave as of the greatest prince alive ? For it
is not power and high station that can purchase these
heavenly possessions ; they are only to be gained by
goodness and serving of God ; and the lowest of us can
serve God as well as the richest person here below,
and, by that means, may adorn the doctrine of the
Lord your God in all things, and bring more honor
to Christ than many of higher rank and condition,
who are not so careful of their souls as you may be.
When, therefore, we shall leave this impertinent
and unsociable world, and all our good old friends
that are gone to Heaven before us, shall meet us as
soon as we are landed upon the shore of eternity, and
with infinite congratulations for our safe arrival, shall
conduct us into the company of patriarchs, prophets,
apostles and martyrs and introduce us into an inti-
mate acquaintance with them, and with all those brave
and generous souls, who, by their glorious examples,
have recommended themselves to the world ; when we
shall be familiar friends with angels and archangels ;
and all the courtiers of heaven shall call us brethren
and bid us welcome to their Master's joy, and we shall
68 LIFE, EXPERIENCE, ETC., OF THE
be received into their glorious society with all the
tender endearments and caresses of those heavenly
lovers ; what a mighty addition to our happiness will
this be! There are, indeed, some other additions to
the happiness of heaven, such as the glory and magnifi-
cence of the place, which is the highest heaven, or the
upper and purer tracts of the ether, which our Saviour
calls Paradise.
In the temper of every wicked mind there is a strong
antipathy to the pleasures of Heaven, which, being all
chaste, pure and spiritual, can never agree with the
vitiated palate of a base and degenerate soul. For
what concord can there be between a spiteful and
devilish spirit and the fountain of all love and good-
ness ? Between a sensual and carnalized one, that
understands no other pleasures but only those of the
flesh, and those pure and virgin spirits, that neither eat
nor drink, but live forever upon wisdom, holiness, love
and contemplation ? Certainly till our mind is con-
tempered to the heavenly state, and we are of the
same disposition with God and angels and saints, there
is no pleasure in Heaven that can be agreeable to us.
For as in the main we shall be of the same temper
and disposition when we come into the other life as we
are when we leave this, it being unimaginable how a
total change should be wrought in us merely by pass-
ing out of one world into another, and, therefore, as
in this w-orld, it is likeness that does congregate and
associate beings together, so, doubtless, it is in the
other world too ; so that if we carry with us thither
our wicked and devilish dispositions (as we shall cer-
tain do, unless we subdue and mortify them here),
there will be no company fit for us to associate with,
but only the devilish and damned ghosts of wicked
men, with whom our wretched spirits, being already
joiued by a likeness of nature, will mingle themselves
as soon as ever they are excommunicated from the
society of mortals.
RIGIIT REV. RICHARD ALLEN. 69
For whither should they flock but to the birds of
their own feather ? with whom should they associate
but with those malignant spirits, to whom they are
already joined by a community of nature? So that,
supposing that when they land in eternity, it were left
to their own choice to go to heaven or hell, into the
society of the blessed or the damned, it is plain that
heaven would be no place for them ; that the air of
that bright region of eternal day would never agree
with their black aud hellish natures ; for, alas ! what
should they do among those blessed beings that in-
habit it? To those godlike natures, divine contem-
plation and heavenly employments, they have so great
a repugnancy and aversion ? So that, besides the
having a right to Heaven, it is necessary to our enjoy-
ing it, that we should be antecedently disposed and
qualified for it. And it being thus, God hath been
graciously pleased to make those very virtues the con-
dition of our right to Heaven, which are the propei
dispositions and qualifications of our spirits for it, that
so, with one and the same labor, we might entitle our-
selves and qualify ourselves to enjoy it.
THE END.
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